INEC lists 10 points to struck out PDP petition at Presidential Election Tribunal

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), in a notice of preliminary objection to the petition filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Atiku Abubakar, listed 10 grounds upon which the PDP petition can be declared incompetent and therefore, be struck out by the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal.

Thus, INEC is requesting the Tribunal to strike out the petition for being incompetent.

Included in the 10 grounds INEC presented for the dismissal of the Atiku’s petition is that the petition does not contain the result of the presidential election which is mandatorily required by the Electoral Act.

The commission listed other grounds for dismissal of the PDP petition include an incompetent and invalid list of witnesses on the basis that the document containing the list was not signed by a legal practitioner.

INEC also argued that the allegations of improper accreditation, over-voting, deflating of votes and wrong entries in forms are baseless as the petition of the PDP failed to identify the polling units where the infractions occurred or the states where they occurred.

In addition to the preliminary objection, INEC also filed a full reply to the petition, denying all allegations of electoral malpractices listed by the petitioners.

INEC maintained that the second respondent, President Muhammadu Buhari, and not the petitioner, scored the highest lawful votes cast at the February 23 presidential election based on the records obtained from each state of the federation.