President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has asked the Supreme Court to dismiss the appeal filed by former Vice President, Abubakar Atiku and his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) challenging the judgement of the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) which dismissed their petition against his victory at the February 25 presidential election.
The PEPC had, on September 6 dismissed the joint petition by Atiku and his party challenging the declaration of Tinubu as the winner of the presidential election on the ground that they were unable to prove the allegations in their petition, among other grounds.
In a brief of argument in response to Atiku and PDP’s appeal filed on October 11, Tinubu, who is the 2nd respondent in the appeal which has the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) as 1st and 3rd respondents, challenged the competence of the grounds of appeal contained in Atiku’s Notice of Appeal as well as the issues formulated.
Tinubu submitted that by all extant laws, INEC has the prerogative of determining the mode and manner for the transmission of election results and that the PEPC was perfectly in order when it held so.
On the issue of 25% votes cast in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja before a candidate can be declared winner of a presidential election, Tinubu, through his lead Counsel, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN) told the apex court that, there is no superiority of votes or voters, as all votes and voters are equal.
“We urge the court to hold that any election where the electorate exercise their plebiscite, there is neither a royal ballot nor royal voter and residents of the FCT do not have any special voting right over residents of any other state of the federation in a manner similar to the concept of preferential shareholding in company law.
“We urge the court to resolve this issue in favour of the respondent and against the appellants”, he said and further submitted that, the lower court was right when it held that Atiku and his party, as petitioners before it, failed to prove their allegations of non compliance and corrupt practices as required by law.
He explained that the petitioners are required by the provisions of Section 135(1) of the Electoral Act, 2022 to establish how the non compliance substantially affected the result of the election.
Tinubu said Atiku failed to demonstrate any reason why the apex court should disturb any of the findings of the lower court which are rooted in law and perfect demonstration of scholarship and urged the apex court to affirm the judgement of the lower court and dismiss Atiku’s appeal in its entirety for lacking in merit and bonafide.
According to the President, the alternative relief sought by Atiku and his party at the lower court, for an order directing INEC to conduct a second election (run- off) between Atiku and him, exposed the pretentious attitude of the appellants, both at prosecuting their case at the lower court and before the Supreme Court.
“Here are the same set of appellants alleging non-qualification of the respondent, via the back door, that is, through their reply, on the one hand, and on the other hand, praying this honourable court to nullify the presidential election of February 25, 2023 and direct a second election between the first petitioner and the respondent.
“The logical conclusion from this approbative and reprobative posture of the appellants is that, deep down in their hearts, they are convinced that the respondent won the election, but have decided to embark on this voyage of abuse of court processes.
“Everything put together or summarized, this appeal is a further demonstration of the abusive nature to which the appellants have subjected court processes”, Tinubu stated and urged the apex court to dismiss the appeal.
Meanwhile, Tinubu, in his brief of argument did not say anything on the fresh evidence claimed to have been procured by Atiku from the Chicago State University and no date has been fixed for the hearing of the appeal marked SC/CS/935/2023.
Atiku and his party, had, in their Notice of Appeal hinged on 35 grounds, insisted that the lower court, in its judgment delivered by Justice Haruna Tsammani committed grave error and miscarriage of justice in its findings and conclusion in their petition challenging Tinubu’s declaration as President by INEC.
The Notice of Appeal filed by the lead counsel to the appellants, Chief Chris Uche (SAN) is praying the Supreme Court to set aside the whole findings and conclusions of the PEPC on the grounds that they did not represent the true picture of the grounds of his petition.
Amongst others, the former Vice President and his party maintained that the lower court erred in law when it failed to nullify the February 25 presidential election on the grounds of non-compliance with the Electoral Act, 2022, when by evidence before it, INEC conducted the election based on grave and gross misrepresentation, contrary to the principles of the Electoral Act 2022, based on the “doctrine of legitimate expectation”.
According to the appellants, PEPC erred in law when it refused to uphold mandatoriness of electronic transmission of results for confirmatory and verification of final results introduced by the Electoral Act, 2022 for transparency and integrity of results in accordance with the principles of the Act and held that the petitioners were not able to prove that Electoral Act or guidelines made it mandatory for electronic collation system by INEC, among other grounds.
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