In what may go down as the fiercest elections tribunal related political battle in contemporary Nigeria, the case presented by the presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) at the 2019 general elections, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, appears to be very strong.
The Atiku team led by Dr. Livy Uzoukwu (SAN) at the Presidential Elections Petitions Tribunal (PEPT) gave their final address on August 14, in response to the final address by Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), lead counsel representing President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC). In a 43-page final address presented to the Justice Mohammed Garba-led panel, Atiku prayed that the court declare him the winner of the 2019 presidential election.
In a case where Atiku’s legal team had called in 62 witnesses while supporting same with a plethora of paper trails as well as video evidence to prove their claim, Buhari’s team quit calling any more witnesses immediately one of their witnesses, General Paul Tarfa, who was also Buhari’s mate in the Army, contradicted one of the major assertions of the defense team.
While citing reasons such as wrongful collation of the results in 11 states (Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Niger, Yobe, and Zamfara), among others, Uzoukwu submitted that a correct computation of the poll results would give Atiku a lead margin of 222,332 votes over President Muhammadu Buhari. They contend, based on the figures stated on the unaltered Form EC8A where results on each polling are stated and signed by party agents, that Atiku scored 9,426,082 votes as against Buhari’s 9,203,750. Uzoukwu and his team are also claiming that similar computational errors and statistical discrepancies were observed on Forms EC8A (polling unit collation sheets) and Forms EC8B (ward collation sheets) consequently providing more ground for their case to the extent that the services of a forensic statistician was engaged to identify the errors in the final result declared by INEC.
The Atiku legal team is also depending on the strength of the assertion that Buhari did not have the minimum educational qualification of a secondary school leaving certificate to contest the elections as the results he presented in a sworn affidavit to INEC contrasted with what he obtained at the last minute from Cambridge University as a Declaration of Result. The Middle School in Katsina which Buhari also claimed to have attended is reported to have been abolished in the Northern Region of Nigeria as of 1953. The tribunal’s hands may be tied in pronouncing a verdict of perjury in this case.
As the 5-man panel tribunal has now been adjourned till August 21 to hear a final argument from the petitioner (Atiku’s legal team) and the respondents (INEC and Buhari’s legal teams), there are signs that it may as well have reserved its judgment already for the same day. The tribunal judges may also want to alternatively delay announcement of a date of final judgment but this still has to fall within the tribunal deadline/expiry date of mid-September.
The Atiku team have succeeded in setting legal booby-traps which the Buhari legal team and INEC have struggled to avoid and triumph over. This election’s tribunal case has also brought to the fore a lot of the mediocrity committed by political leaders and institutions which we often gloss over. There is a lot of hope from patriotic citizens that a lot of the inconsistencies of the 2019 general elections will be condemned and stopped forthwith. There is a need to set the path straight once again, and Nigerians are patiently waiting.
Whichever direction the tribunal rulings goes, it will not only go down as one of the most embarrassing elections petition at the presidential level but the impact and consequences of the tribunal panel decision will also live with Nigerians for decades to come as well as carve a new path in elections jurisprudence.
Sources
This Day Live
Punch NG
Featured image source: Vanguard News
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