The appeal filed by former vice president Atiku Abubakar, challenging President Tinubu’s election, has been scheduled for hearing on October 23 by the Supreme Court.
Atiku’s appeal with the reference number SC/CV/935/2023 will be heard on Monday, October 23, according to a notice of hearing dated October 19 and signed by the Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court, Zainab Garba.
On September 19, the PDP presidential candidate filed a 35-ground appeal contesting the decision of the presidential election petitions upholding Tinubu’s election victory.
In its ruling on September 6, a five-member panel of the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC), presided over by Justice Hassan Tsammani, dismissed the complaints submitted by Atiku and his Labour Party rival, Peter Obi, for lack of merit.
The lawyer faulted the court’s use of “disparaging words” against Atiku, which “evinced bias.”
In another ground of appeal, Mr. Uche told the Supreme Court that the lower court’s conclusions “did not represent the true picture of the grounds of his petition”.
He further contended, amongst other issues, that the presidential election court erred in law when it “failed to nullify the presidential election held on February 25, 2023, on the grounds of non-compliance with the Electoral Act, 2022, when, by evidence before the tribunal, INEC conducted the election based on grave and gross misrepresentation contrary to the principles of the Electoral Act 2022, based on the “doctrine of legitimate expectation.”
Act, 2022, when, by the evidence before the tribunal, INEC conducted the election based on grave and gross misrepresentation contrary to the principles of the Electoral Act 2022, based on the “doctrine of legitimate expectation.”
He further argued that the lower court erred by refusing to uphold the mandate of electronic transmission of results for confirmation and verification of final results introduced by the Electoral Act 2022 aimed at boosting election “transparency and integrity.”
The PEPC, in its verdict, said Atiku was unable to prove that the Electoral Act compels INEC to collate the election results using the electronic collation system.
Atiku’s lawyer referred the Supreme Court to INEC’s sole witness, Lawrence Bayode’s testimony, while being cross-examined, saying that the “deployment of the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) and IReV was to guarantee the transparency of the electoral process and the integrity of the results.”
Pointing out another grouse with the PEPC, Mr Uche faulted the court’s “shifting of the burden of proof” on Atiku instead of INEC concerning the issue of non-compliance with electoral laws.
He explained that presiding officers from polling units having confirmed “selective transmission of” parliamentary election results as against the presidential poll, “the onus shifted to” INEC “to call evidence to explain the selective transmission” and “the vague excuse of a technical glitch.”
Referencing the Electoral Act, the appellant said the lower court erred when it failed to invalidate Mr Tinubu’s election on account of INEC’s conduct of the poll in “grave and gross misrepresentation” of the Electoral Act and “doctrine of legitimate expectation.”
On the issue of 25 per cent of votes in two-thirds of the FCT, Atiku said the interpretation of the word “and” in Section 134(2)(b) of the constitution is “conductive and not disjunctive.
He said the provisions of the section are “clear and unambiguous”, adding that a “literary and ordinary construction will best define the intention of the framers of the constitution.”
Atiku further contended that the lower court caused “grave injustice” when it “expunged” the witness statements on oath of 13 out of his 27 witnesses from its records.
The presidential election court, in its ruling, said Atiku failed to file his petition alongside the witnesses’ statements on oath.
“The long and short of all the foregoing is that the objection of the respondents to the witness statements, which did not accompany the petition as required by the First Schedule of the Electoral Act, is hereby sustained, and the said witness statements, being incompetent, are hereby struck out and expunged from the records of this court,” the PEPC had ruled.
Meanwhile, President Bola Tinubu and his APC have urged the apex court to dismiss Atiku’s appeal for lacking in merit.
A university certificate was submitted to the electoral body ahead of the presidential election. However, Tinubu’s team of 17 lawyers, comprising 10 Senior Advocates of Nigeria, led by Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), argued that Atiku’s appeal lacks merit.
The lawyers explained that he had only sought relief targeted at the president without canvassing issues that would benefit them in their final written address.
Tinubu accused Atiku of “cooking up allegations” of discrepancies against him.
He said, “It was at this point that they rolled out their drums of cooked-up allegations of discrepancies in the 2nd Respondent’s academic qualifications, dual nationality, and sundry bemusing allegations from the backdoor.
“While they also claimed to have won the highest number of votes cast at the election, as against INEC’s declaration, throughout their petition, they did not suggest an alternative score that they considered correct, whether for themselves or the respondent.
“Though they had alleged that the election was riddled with non-compliance and corrupt practices, the paragraphs of their petition putting up these allegations were nothing short of vague, imprecise, generic, and nebulous.
“For these allegations, which ought to have been specifically demonstrated through facts and figures like polling units and numbers, the appellants, through their petition, chose to regale the lower court and the respondents with breathtaking suspense by stating that the said facts will be disclosed in their statistician’s report, which was not part of the petition filed.
“It is only commonsensical that the respondents will only be able to respond to the facts in the petition and not to the crucial, albeit anticipated, statistician’s report, since even the devil himself knows not the heart of man.”
Urging the apex court to dismiss the appeal, Tinubu said, “We accordingly urge this Honourable Court to affirm the decision of the lower court while dismissing this appeal in its entirety, as the same is lacking in merit and bona fide.”
He said the “appeal is a further demonstration of the abusive nature to which the appellants have subjected court processes”.
“The Supreme Court is urged to dismiss it,” Tinubu said.
Source: The Sun
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