The Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT), sitting in Abuja on Wednesday dismissed the petition brought before it by the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and his party, challenging the declaration of President Muhammadu Buhari as the winner of the February 23, 2019 presidential election.
The five-member panel of Justices of the Court of Appeal that sat on the Tribunal, in a lead judgment delivered by Justice Mohammed Garba, held that Atiku and his party failed to prove the allegations of violation of Electoral Act and corrupt practices in the conduct of the election.
The Tribunal held that the petitioners could not prove the criminal allegations of non-accreditation, invalid votes, deliberate depletion of petitioners vote, anomalies, over-voting, wrongful collation of results in favour of Buhari and APC, as well as corrupt practices beyond reasonable doubt as required by law.
The Tribunal also held that Atiku and PDP failed to establish that Buhari was not academically qualified to contest the post of president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, even as it held that the petitioners failed to also show that Buhari gave false information in the form he submitted to the electoral body to get clearance to participate in the February 23 Presidential election.
In the unanimous judgment, the Tribunal agreed with the submission of Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), counsel to President Buhari that Buhari does not need to tender or attach certificate before he can get qualification for any election.
It is on that note that the Tribunal held that President Buhari was eminently qualified to contest the presidential election, and thus resolved issues one and two in his favour.
On issue three, that Buhari was not validly elected, the Tribunal held that INEC, in their submissions, proved that election results were manually transmitted and not electronically via card reader, as alleged by the petitioners.
The Tribunal agreed that INEC has no Central Server, adding that, from the testimony of the petitioners’ witnesses, it shows that collation and transmission of election results were not electronically done.
It also agreed with the respondents in the petition that there is no provision in the Electoral Act that allows the transmission of election results electronically.
“The evidences of PW3, 4,15, 36 and 59 cannot be relied upon to come to a conclusion that INEC has a Central Server where election results were electronically transmitted to.
“Their evidence lacks probative value and cannot be relied upon. The petitioners failed to prove their case that results were transmitted electronically”, the Tribunal held in the judgment that lasted for about nine hours.
The chairman of the Tribunal, Justice Garba, who read the judgment, said the petitioners ought to have called witnesses from all the collation centres across the 774 local government areas of the country to testify on the allegations of corrupt practices, violence and non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act to prove their allegations beyond reasonable doubt.
He said Atiku and his party failed to prove that Buhari was not validly elected by majority lawful votes cast.
The Tribunal held that the petitioners’ allegations that the Army, Police and other security agencies harassed and intimidated supporters of the PDP during the election was not satisfactorily proved by the petitioners.
According to Justice Garba, “it is inevitable and unavoidable that the petitioners had failed to satisfactorily prove the allegations contained in their petition.
“This petition is likely to be dismissed and it is hereby dismissed in its entirety, parties are to bear their cost,” Justice Garba held.
While counsel to INEC, Buhari and the APC commended the Tribunal for the judgment, counsel to the petitioners, Dr Livy Nzoukwu (SAN) said the judgment was the longest ever delivered and indicated that the petitioners will study the judgment and will challenge it at the Supreme Court.
Earlier, the Tribunal delivered ruling in some applications filed by parties at the pre-hearing session, one of it been that of INEC which prayed the Tribunal to dismiss the petitioners’ petition on the ground that Vice President Yemi Osibanjo was not added as a party in their petition.
Ruling on the application, the Tribunal held that INEC’s prayer for dismissal of the petitioners’ case on the ground that they failed to join Osibanjo is not well-grounded in law and consequently dismissed it for lacking in merit
Atiku and his party, in their submissions told the tribunal that Buhari used fundamental falsehood to secure clearance from INEC to participate in the poll.