Tribunal Dismisses PDP, Atiku’s Petition Challenging Buhari’s Victory

 

  The Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal has dismissed the petition filed by the Peoples Democratic Party and its candidate in the 2019 Presidential election challenging the victory of President Muhammadu Buhari in its entirety. The five-man panel of the tribunal, led by Justice Mohammed Garba gave the unanimous judgement on Wednesday. The tribunal dismissed the petition in its entirety and the parties are to bear their respective cost. “This petition is accordingly and hereby dismissed in its entirety.”

    Other members of the five-man panel of the tribunal, agreed with the lead judgement. Justice Garba affirmed that President Muhammadu Buhari is the winner of the 2019 presidential election.The PDP and Atiku had filed a joint petition on March 18, 2019, specifically asking the tribunal to disqualify Buhari, winner of the February 23 presidential election, on the grounds that he (Buhari) did not possess the requisite academic qualification to contest for the office of President, and the election was marred with irregularities

  The tribunal also dismissed Atiku’s claim that he won the election based on results allegedly transmitted into the INEC sever. According to the Tribunal, the Kenyan Information and Communication Technology (ICT) expert, David Njorga invited as the 59th witnesses to establish the claim that INEC transmitted results to a server during the last presidential election was based on ‘hearsay’ from a third party.

  “The author of the content revealing the information from the said server claimed to be an INEC staff. This to me is unreliable for any information that should be relied on by an expert. “Whatever he got came from the server belonging to the whistleblower and not INEC. Under cross-examination, he admitted that the information on the website www.factdontlie.com could have been doctored.

  “His evidence is hanging on third party information from an unknown source. The law is clear on hearsay evidence,” Justice Garba stated. The chairman of the tribunal added that the petitioner failed to prove substantial non-compliance of the electoral act in the 11 states complained to have been marred by electoral malpractices.

CHANNELS