Politics

Atiku Present As Tribunal Moves To Adopt Written Address Against TinubuÂ

Posted by: Quickresponse | August 1, 2023

Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar (L); and PDP acting National Chairman, Umar Damagum; in court in Abuja on Tuesday, August 1, 2023 Â

The Presidential Election Petition Court has resumed sitting for the adoption of the written address of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, against the February 25 election victory of President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Atiku, Nigeriaâ€™s Vice-President between May 1999 and May 2007, was physically present in court today (Tuesday).
Todayâ€™s hearing majorly is for the parties to adopt all their various arguments which are already before the court.
After that is done, the court would either fix a date for judgement or reserve judgement.
The petitioners â€” PDP and Atiku as well as Labour Party (LP) and its flag bearer, Peter Obi â€” are praying for the nullification of Tinubuâ€™s victory in the February 25 poll.

They are both praying to be named the winner of the election, or that a rerun to be conducted.
The parties filed and exchanged their final written addresses with the last being Tinubuâ€™s reply on July 24 to the final written address by Atiku and the PDP.
WhileÂ Obi and the LP called 13 witnesses, tendered a lot of documents and closed their case on June 23, Atiku and the PDP called 27 witnesses, tendered documents and closed their case on June 23.
In the petition by Obi and his party, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) called one witness, tendered some documents and closed its case on July 4.

It also closed its case with the same witness in the petition by Atiku and the PDP, on July 3.
Counsel for Tinubu and his Vice, Kashim Shettima and APC closed their case in both petitions on July 5.
Though the counsel for Tinubu and Shettima called one witness and tendered documents, the APC did not call any witness in its defence in both petitions. The ruling party, however, tendered documents, including court judgments.
The three respondents (INEC, APC and Tinubu), urged the court to dismiss the petitions, arguing that the petitioners failed to establish their cases with credible evidence.

In their final arguments, counsel for INEC, Abubakar Mahmoud, said it would amount to absurdity for the Tribunal to accept the argument of Atiku that one must secure 25% votes in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to emerge winner of a presidential election.
Citing Section 134 of the Constitution, Mahmoud said the FCT has no special status.
He added that it would amount to absurdity for residents of the FCT to be deemed as being more special than other Nigerians elsewhere who voted during the keenly contested election.
( Channels TV)