Presidential Tribunal: Court of Appeal strikes out Atiku Petitions
The court of appeal today struck out petition filed by the Peoples democratic party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar.
The People Democratic Party Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar had approached the court to challenge the victory of President Buhari in the February 23 Presidential election.
Leading the five man judge, justice Garba started by dismissing petitions filed by INEC.
The first INEC petition struck out was on the ground that Atiku, PDP (petitioners), didn’t add Yemi Osinbajo, The vice-presidential candidate of the APC to the petition.
The five-man tribunal however unanimously struck out the petition.
The second was on the ground that the lead counsel to the petitioners, Livy Uzoukwu was not in the list of lawyers at the chief registrar of the supreme court and shouldn’t practice law in Nigeria.
Justice Garba however ruled that Livy Uzoukwu’s name is on the rolls of the Supreme Court as a competent lawyer.
The third and fourth petition that was ruled on was a motion filed by INEC that some of the petitions constitute a pre election matter.
INEC said the allegations that Buhari gave false information on the CF001 form submitted to INEC, or have the required qualification constitute a pre election matter.
The tribunal upheld INEC’s motion that the required qualification is a pre-election issue.
The tribunal however found no merit in the applicant’s motion that Buhari gave false information in the affidavit submitted to INEC.
Ruling on the fifth petition, the INEC said the petitioners paragraph 148 to 200, 260 and 261 should be struck down because they are nebulous, vague or imprecise.
The tribunal said the paragraphs are not nebulous, vague or imprecise and cannot be struck down as requested, dismissing the fifth prayer.
The tribunal upheld INEC’s 7 and 8 motions for containing allegations of crime, corrupt practices, violence against those that could not defend themselves.
The tribunal held that the evidence from the 62 witnesses did not help the petitioners case, and couldn’t prove that president Buhari was not duly elected
