Court reserves judgement on Atiku’s petition against Tinubu and INEC

The Presidential Election Petition Court, PEPC, sitting in Abuja, on Tuesday, August 1, reserved its judgement on the petition of former Vice President and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, filed to nullify President Bola Tinubu’s election.

The Justice Haruna Tsammani-led five-member panel reseved the judgement, after all the parties adopted their final briefs of argument.

While adopting their final written address, Atiku and the PDP’s counsel led by Chief Chris Uche, SAN, urged the court to declare that President Tinubu was not qualified to contest the presidential poll that held on February 25 and the entire outcome of the presidential election be nullified.

Atiku and his party alleged that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, deliberately bypassed all the technological innovations it introduced for the purpose of the 2023 general elections and breached the amended Electoral Act, when it refused to electronically transmit results of the presidential election.

“On the issue of transmission of election results based on new provisions in the Electoral Act, we are all in agreement, including the INEC, that there is a new regime in election management.

“The essence of the innovation was to enhance transparency in the collation of results, which was an area that we usually had problems and not the actual election, and secondly, to enhance the integrity of result declared.

“We agree that INEC had an option and we brought a video evidence by INEC Chairman showing that the electoral body indeed chose an option.

“It is our contention and it is here in evidence that witnesses admitted that results from the National Assembly election were transmitted but that of the presidential election was not.

“A whopping N355bn was deployed for the election, therefore, INEC owe this court and the nation an explanation.

“It is our submission that there was no technical glitch on the election day, rather, there was a deliberate bypass of the technology in order to create room for the manipulation that eventually took place.

“Until the court makes a judicial pronouncement, there may not be compliance to express provisions of the new regime of the Electoral Act.

“My lords, Imin a situation like this, the burden shifts on INEC to explain. It is not on the Petitioner to explain why there was such technical glitch.

“We urge this court to hold that there was a deliberate non-compliance. The substantiality of the non-compliance lies on the national spread of the non transmission of results. It was national and not limited to certain polling units,” Uche, SAN, added.

However, all the Respondents- INEC, President Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress, APC- through their respective lawyers, prayed the court to dismiss the petition as grossly lacking in merit.

President Tinubu’s team, led by Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, argued that the petitioners failed to establish why the presidential election should be nullified.

Insisting that he was duly elected with majority of valid votes that were cast during the election, President Tinubu, urged the court to dismiss Atiku’s petition.

After it had listened to all the parties, the Justice Tsammani-led panel adjourned the matter for judgement.

The court said it would communicate the judgement date to all the parties.

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