The Presidential Election Petition Court has resumed sitting to hear the written address of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, against President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC)’s February 25 election victory.
Former Vice-President, Atiku was physically present in court on Tuesday.
The hearing was intended to allow parties to adopt all of their varied arguments that were previously before the court before the court set a date for judgment or reserved judgment.
The petitioners, the PDP and Atiku, as well as the Labour Party (LP) and its flag bearer, Peter Obi, are requesting that Tinubu’s victory in the February 25 election be declared null and void.
They are both hoping to be declared the winner of the election or to have a rerun.
The parties filed and exchanged final written addresses, the most recent of which was Tinubu’s response on July 24 to Atiku and the PDP’s final written address.
While Obi and the LP called 13 witnesses, submitted several documents, and finished their case on June 23, Atiku and the PDP summoned 27 witnesses, submitted numerous documents, and closed their case on June 23.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) called one witness, turned over some papers, and ended its case against Obi and his party on July 4.
Counsel for the APC, Lateef Fagbemi, also prayed the court to dismiss the petition on the grounds that all the points raised in the petition has been ruled on by other court.
On the issue of 25% in Abuja, he said treating Abuja specially would be undue privilege, discrimination and elevation of a state, above others.
On the issue of election results, he noted that the petitioners did not prove that election did not hold in any area, neither did they prove that the results were purported as their witnesses did not disagree with the results of the election, as the only complain they had was the uploading of results.
On the issue of forfeiture, he noted that it was a civil forfeiture not a criminal one.
Counsel for Tinubu and Shettima, Wole Olanikpekun, described the petitioners as meddlesome interloper.
On the FCT, Olanikpekun held that the FCT is the 37th state in Nigeria for the purpose of the presidential election.
He added that the President won one quarter of the votes in two-third of the FCT.
