The Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, Monday, reserved judgment in the petition filed by the Hope Democratic Party, HDP, challenging the declaration of President Muhammadu Buhari as winner of the February 23 presidential election.
The tribunal reserved judgment after parties in the petition adopted their final written addresses.
Adopting the HDP’s final address, its lead counsel, Chukwunoyerem Njoku, urged the tribunal to set aside the election of February 23 on the ground that the electoral body did not follow condition precedent in the electoral act before postponing the poll earlier scheduled for February 16.
Njoke also informed the tribunal that because the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, did not follow the condition precedent before postponing the election unconstitutionally, a referendum was conducted in line with the law and the Presidential candidate of the HDP, Ambrose Oworu, emerged winner of the referendum with over 50 million votes.
He submitted that Nigerian citizen participated in the February 16 referendum as required by law and urged the tribunal to nullify the declaration of President Buhari by INEC as winner and in his place restore Owuru as the authentic winner of the election.
However, President Muhammadu Buhari represented by Wole Olanipekun SAN, urged the tribunal to dismiss the petition on grounds that it is frivolous, baseless and lacking in merit.
Olanipekun told the tribunal that the petitioners did not in any way adduce evidence on how the referendum was conducted and who conducted it in line with the provisions of the law.
Buhari’s counsel also told the tribunal that he had studied carefully the final address of the HDP and its presidential candidate and there was nowhere it made any case against President Muhammadu Buhari.
Also, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, through its lead counsel, Yinus Usman, while adopting his final address, urged the tribunal to dismiss the petition with substantial cost to serve as deterrent to those who may wish to file frivolous and baseless petitions in the 2023 elections.
Usman argued that the petition lacked in merit because the electoral body conducted an election and not a referendum and that the claims of the two petitioners are strange to the electoral umpire.
He, therefore, urged the tribunal to uphold the declaration of Buhari as winner of the February 23 presidential election.
The counsel of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Akin Olujimi, in his own final address, demanded a dismissal of the petition for lacking in merit, saying the petition was wholly misconceived by the two petitioners.
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