The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate in the February 23, 2019 presidential election, Atiku Abubakar on Monday said they have filed their petition at the tribunal, challenging the validity of the election in which President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was returned for a second term.
PDP’s National
Legal Adviser, Emmanuel Enoidem and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN),
Mike Ozekhome said the party and Atiku filed a joint petition on Monday
evening at the secretarial of the Presidential Election Petition
Tribunal in Abuja.
Enoidem and Ozekhome spoke while exiting the
tribunal’s secretariat situated at the Abuja division of the Court of
Appeal on Monday evening.
Both lawyers gave hints about the content of the petition and their expectations at the tribunal.
Enoidem
said: “We are here to present our joint petition for our party, the PDP
and candidate our candidate. The last day for the petition is actually
tomorrow, but we decided to file today.
“We asked that our candidate, who won the election massively across the country, be declared the winner of that election.
“In
the alternative, we also asked that the election be set aside on the
grounds of irregularities, which were very apparent across the country.
“We
have a pool of 20 Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs), who are tested in
election petition matters and other senior lawyers, who are also
working with them.
“So we are very ready for the petition. The petition is well packaged. The depositions are well put together.
“More
than 400 witnesses are going to testify in this petition. Nigerians are
at home with what happened on February 23 in this country in relation
to the sham they called election.
“Of course, we are going to
re-present the facts to Nigerians, as the facts are already in the
domain of Nigerians. We are not going to manufacture facts.
Ozekhome,
who came out of the tribunal’s secretariat later, said he is a member
of the petitioners’ legal team and that the petit on is “strong, solid
and unassailable.”
He noted that, with only one day to the
deadline for filing of the petition, the late filing was because the
Independent National Electoral Commission failed to cooperate in terms
of providing easy access to the electoral materials.
Ozekhome
added: “We have up to tomorrow (Tuesday), to file but we have been
having some challenges from the INEC itself in terms of assessing
materials used during the elections. But I believe we will get there.
“Our
petition is quite solid, strong unassailable and we believe that by the
grace of God, the true keeper and owner of the mandate will have his
mandate given to him.”
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