Atiku’s Petition: INEC, APC Face Thursday Deadline To Respond

Atiku’s petition: INEC, APC face Thursday deadline to respond

The
Independent National Electoral Commission and the All Progressives
Congress have till Thursday to file their responses to the election
petition jointly filed by the Peoples Democratic Party and its
presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, challenging the outcome
of the February 23 presidential election, SUNDAY PUNCH has learnt.

Due
to the fact that the petition was served on him late, President
Muhammadu Buhari, who is the candidate of the APC, has till at least
April 16 to respond to the petition.

Atiku and his party
had, on March 18, 2019 filed the petition before the Presidential
Election Petitions Tribunal, challenging the declaration of Buhari and
the APC as the winner of the election.

The petitioners claimed that contrary to INEC’s declaration, the PDP’s candidate was the valid winner of the election.

INEC, Buhari and APC are the first to the third respondents to the petition, respectively.

SUNDAY PUNCH found out that as of Friday, none of the three respondents had filed their responses to the petition.

Paragraph
10(2) of the Electoral Act, 2010 provides for a period of not more than
21 days within which a respondent must reply to an election petition
from the date of being served with it.

The said Paragraph 10(2)
provides, “The non-filling of a memorandum of appearance shall
not bar the respondent from defending the election petition if
the respondent files his reply to the election petition in the
Registry within a reasonable time, but, in any case, not later
than twenty-one (21) days from the receipt of the election
petition.”

The petitioners served the petition on INEC and APC on
March 22, but was unable to serve same on Buhari until they were able
to obtain a March 27 order of the Court of Appeal in Abuja permitting
them to serve the President through substituted means.

The
petitioners had, in an affidavit filed in support of their ex parte
application, cited the protocols and security hurdles at the
Presidential Villa as the reasons for their inability to serve Buhari
with the petition personally.

Ruling on the application, which it
said was meritorious, the Justice Abdu Aboki-led three-man bench of the
Court of Appeal, Abuja, on March 27, granted the order permitting them
to serve Buhari through APC’s national secretariat.

By our
correspondent’s calculation, the 21 days granted to INEC and the APC to
respond, from March 22 when they were served with the petition, would
expire on April 11.

Asked when the APC would file its reply to
the petition, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria in the party’s legal team,
who sought not to be named, confirmed that they had Thursday deadline to
file their response.

“We are filing our reply in the new week because our 21 days window expires in the new week,” the SAN said.

Speaking
with SUNDAY PUNCH, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr Paul Ananaba,
confirmed that a respondent had 21 days to reply to an election
petition.

Ananaba, who has handled a number of election petition
cases, said, “The respondent has 21 days to file a response. But there
is no extension of time once the respondent fails to file a reply.

“The
registry of an election petitions tribunal opens on Saturdays and
Sundays; so, there is no excuse for anyone not to meet the time limit.”

Asked what the implication of non-filing of a reply within time, the SAN said, “It simply means the respondent has no defence.”

There are now four petitions challenging APC’s victory at the presidential poll.

All
necessary papers would need to be exchanged between parties to a
particular petition before hearing could begin in respect of the
petition.

Another lawyer, Mr Tunde Falola, said, “A respondent,
who does not file his reply to the petition within time has no defence
to the petition and he would be deemed to have accepted those
allegations contained in the petition.”

He also confirmed that
Paragraph 10(2) of the Electoral Act provides for 21 days for a
respondent who does not file a memorandum of appearance, to file a reply
to the petition.

According to him, non-filing of a memorandum of
appearance implies that the respondent “intends to dispute or challenge
the jurisdiction of the tribunal to hear the petition in the first
place.”

Source:- Punchng