The pre-hearing session in the petition filed by candidate of
the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, against the election of
President Muhammadu Buhari was stalled on Wednesday to enable the petitioners
respond to the bid by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to void the petition.
Atiku and the PDP in a fresh motion are asking the
Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) to halt the delivery of its
ruling in a motion on notice filed by the APC, it was gathered.
The move, it was learnt, was predicted on the grounds that
the tribunal had on June 11 allowed the APC to withdraw a motion in which the
petitioners had already filed a counter affidavit and went on to adjourn ruling
in the other motion they did not respond to it.
Their argument was that if the court could allow the APC
withdraw its motion which a counter affidavit had been filed then, the court
should equally allow them respond to the motion on notice which they did not
respond to since the motion was withdrawn on the hearing date without prior
notice.
The APC had in the motion on notice filed by its lead
counsel, Prince Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) on May 15, prayed the tribunal to void and
strike out Atiku's petition on various grounds of alleged irregularities and
non-compliance with the Legal Practitioners Act.
When the motion was argued by Fagbemi, Atiku and PDP did not
file a counter affidavit, prompting the tribunal to reserve ruling in the APC's
motion.
However, at Wednesday's proceedings, lead counsel to the
petitioners, Chief Chris Uche (SAN) informed the tribunal that the petitioners
had just received the response of the APC to their request asking the tribunal
to stop delivery of ruling in the motion and would need time to respond on
point of law.
The Tribunal Chairman, Justice Mohammed Garba, after listening
to a short argument by parties adjourned further hearing till July 1.
The APC had on June 11, through its counsel, Fagbemi prayed
the tribunal to strike out Atiku's petition and in the alternative strike out
several paragraphs that were not supported by facts and laws.
Among others, Fagbemi prayed the tribunal to remove 10
states on the list of states where Atiku
alleged electoral malpractices took place in the February 23 presidential
election.
The grouse of APC were that the petitioners failed to
disclose the specific polling units where the alleged infraction took place,
thereby making their claims imprecise, nebulous and vague.
Fagbemi also applied for the order of the tribunal to strike
out paragraphs where allegations of act of thuggery, arrest, intimidation and
coersion were made against Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, the Nigerian Army, the
Nigerian Police and several other individuals who were not joined as defenfants
in their petition.
APC also applied that the claim by Atiku and the PDP that
President Buhari was not educational qualified to stand for the presidential
election be expunged from their petition because it is a pre-election matter
which the tribunal has no jurisdiction to adjudicate upon.
Besides, APC also asked the tribunal to strike out the
petition for failure to comply with mandatory provisions of paragraph 4 and 7
of the first schedule to the Electoral Act 2010
and section 134 of the 1999 Constitution.
The APC similarly faulted the petition for being incompetent
and in gross violation of section 2 and 24 of the Legal Practitioners Act and
therefore urged that the petition be struck out together with the list of
documents and list of witnesses to be relied upon by the petitioners.
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