Buhari Urges Tribunal To Dismiss Atiku’s Petition, Says “It’s Worthless”

President Muhammadu Buhari has urged the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal to dismiss the petition filed against him by Atiku Abubakar and his party, the Peoples Democratic Party.

Buhari said the petition challenging his 2019 presidential election victory is the most worthless in the history of election litigation.

He added that the presidential election tribunal should dismiss Atiku’s suit for lack of merit.

The President made the submission in the final written address submitted by his legal team before the 2019 presidential election petition tribunal.

It would be recalled that the tribunal had fixed August 21 to adopt the final submissions from all parties involved in the petition regarding the 2019 presidential election.

Buhari and the APC argued that the reliefs sought by the petitioners are “ungrantable and meaningless”, as Atiku and the PDP failed woefully to prove the allegations as contained in their petition.

They said: “It is submitted with every force that in the annals of election petition proceedings in Nigeria, this particular petition has been the most starved in terms of evidence, whether oral or documentary. The petitioners also woefully failed to appreciate that this court does not wrought miracles, but decides cases according to law, and not based on sentiments.

“Whereas, the petitioners are challenging results of election in all the states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, and have pleaded in paragraph 107 of their petition that there were 119,973 polling units in the country, they called only five polling unit agents to give evidence, i.e PW5 of Mai Angwa Yclwa 008 Polling Unit of Jigawa State; PW6 of Farin Dutse 001 Polling Unit of Jigawa State; PW12 of Polling Unit 009 of Nasarawa “B” Ward of Niger State; PW46 of Unit 009, Karu Ward of Nasarawa State, and PW49 of Unit 1, Morowa of Nasarawa State.

“Apart from the fact that these witnesses made no impression on the petitioners’ case, a pertinent question arises, to wit, what happens to the remaining witnesses in respect of the outstanding 119, 968 polling units in the country?

“This is not surprising as the entirety of the petition is based on assumptions, speculations and conjectures. The petition itself is based on conflicting and irreconcilable grounds, the last two of which glibly suggest that the 2nd respondent (Buhari) was not qualified to contest the election under reference.

“As against the grounds, the evidence given, both oral and the dumped documentary, suggests something different; the five reliefs sought are not any shade better than the grounds, but they vividly bring to the fore the confusion enveloping the entire petition.”