PEPC dismisses PDP, Atiku’s case against Tinubu

… Dismisses PDP’s allegations of forgery, conviction against Tinubu

The Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) sitting in Abuja  has dismissed the petition brought against the declaration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress as the winner of the February 25th 2023 Presidential Election.

The Court presided over by Justice Haruna Tsammani who also read the judgment which lasted over several hours held that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its Presidential Candidate Atiku Abubakar, failed to prove any of its prayers in the petition.

He declared that the Court adopts its earlier position on the 25% votes in the FCT.

According to him, the party failed to prove cases of malpractices it alleged with any documentation or evidence.

Some of the petitioner’s witnesses according to the Court also gave evidence supporting the good conduct of the Election with the only issue being the failure to upload the results through IREV to INEC’s Election Results Portal.

According to the Court the burden of proof lies with the petitioner who have been unable to prove their case.

The Court said that the PDP and its Presidential candidate introduced unfair measures in trying to prove its case before it leading to it introducing issues not pleaded midway into its hearing.

The presiding Justice also said the petitioners just dumped documents before it without any inkling as to what they were meant for.

The Court held that ‘The PDP failed to give names of polling units affected by overvoting in Kogi state’.

‘Particulars of the lawful vote depilated from their votes were not provided’.

‘Figures of the votes in the affected 10 polling units and 2 local governments in Kogi state were not provided’.

‘In Adavi and Okehi local government in Kogi state the petitioners did not demonstrate evidence to prove over voting or irregularities’.

‘The petitioner relied on a statistician report that was not properly filled and did not identify the affected polling units’.

‘The failure of the petitioner to join Governor Yahaya Bello in the petition having accused him of Gun-toting is fatal to their allegations of electoral violence in Kogi state’.

‘The court found vague the petitioner’s allegations that the result announced by INEC did not reflect the lawful votes’.

‘Allegations of the petitioners of corrupt practices are vague’.

‘Allegations of manipulation of results in Lagos state are vague due to the absence of pleading to the affected figures’.

‘The petitioners averment on the real time transmission of results to IREV portal by INEC cannot by any means give rise to cause of action’.

‘Paragraph 16 of the 1st schedule of the Electoral Act forbids the introduction of new facts when pleadings have been made’.

‘The allegations of conviction, forgery and non-qualification against President Tinubu introduced by the petitioner in its petition after pleading, is an unfair tactic not allowed by law’.

‘The allegations of dual citizenship against the president are new facts raised by the petitioner after pleadings were made and as such cannot succeed’.

‘The law is settled that the results presented by INEC are deemed correct’.

‘Any petitioner that alleged any form of irregularities or noncompliance must prove it as the burden of proof is on the person that alleges’.

‘The Electoral Act regulates the entire process of the election, the court is careful in the interpretation of sections 60, and 61 of the Electoral Act’.

‘The law does not make provisions any other form of collation of results except manual collation’.

‘PDP has failed to prove form of irregularities in the 2023 presidential election’.

‘PDP dumped documents before the court’.

‘The party failed to lay the document to each of its claims’.

‘PDP did not prove all the allegations in its petition’.