Abuja — The Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) has reserved judgment in the petition filed by Alhaji Atiku Abubakar challenging the declaration of Bola Tinubu as President.
The five-member panel led Justice Haruna Tsammani, on Tuesday announced that their judgment has been reserved to a date that would be communicated to parties shortly after parties adopted their final written addresses for and against the petition.
Atiku in the petition filed jointly with his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), is seeking the nullification of Tinubu's election as president over alleged irregularities, corrupt practices and substantial non-compliance with the electoral laws, amongst others.
In adopting his final written address, Atiku through his lead lawyer, Chief Chris Uche (SAN), urged the panel to keep to its promise to deliver "substantial justice and not technical justice" in their petition, adding that they have fully established allegations raised in their petition through the testimonies of witnesses called, as well as the plethora of documents tendered.
Atiku in addition challenged the panel to break the jinx that presidential election has never been nullified or can never be nullified by using the case at hand to set precedence.
But the three respondents however disagreed with Atiku, arguing that the petition lacked merit and ought to be dismissed.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), who is the first respondent and body that conducted the disputed February 25 presidential election, observed that the case of the petitioners was based on the misconception that the Electoral Act, 2022, provided for electronic collation of results.
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INEC's lawyer, Mr Abubakar Mahmoud, maintained that collation of results remained manual, adding that the introduction of the INEC's Results Viewing (IReV) Portals was to enhance the credibility of the election but that "collation remained manual throughout the election".
Mahmoud in addition noted that while parties agreed that a glitch occurred during the transmission of the results to the IReV, they however disagreed with the petitioners that the glitch was deliberate and aimed at manipulating the process in favour of the second respondents.
Meanwhile, Tinubu's lead counsel, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), in faulting Atiku's petition, claimed that the petition targeted INEC and not his client.
He also urged the court to discountenance the evidence of Atiku's witnesses on the grounds that pleadings were not linked with evidence, adding that the petitioners merely dumped documents on the court without anyone speaking to the documents.
The All Progressives Congress (APC), represented by Prince Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), however urged the court to dismiss the petition because there is no part of the petition that has not received judicial pronouncement or resolution by the courts.
