THE Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) has reserved judgment in the petition by the Hope Democratic Party (HDP) and its candidate, Ambrose Owuru, against the outcome of the February 23 presidential election won by President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Respondents to the petition are Buhari, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the APC.
The parties on Monday adopted their final written addresses, following which panel Chairman Justice Mohammed Garba announced that the date for judgment will be communicated to parties by the court’s registry.
It is the petitioners’ core contention that they deserved to be announced winners having won, with 50 million votes, a referendum allegedly conducted by a civil society group after INEC unlawfully postponed the presidential election earlier scheduled for February16, 2019.
Adopting his address, petitioners’ lawyer Chukwunoyerem Njoku, urged the court to void the presidential election on the grounds that INEC did not comply with the relevant provisions of the Electoral Act before postponing the election earlier scheduled for February 16, 2019.
Njoku stated that Nigerian citizens participated, as required by law, in the said referendum held on February 16, 2019.
The petitioners’ lawyer urged the court to void INEC’s decision to declare President Buhari as the winner of the last presidential election and replace him Owuru as the authentic winner.
On his part, President Buhari’s lead lawyer, Wole Olanipekun (SAN), noted that the petitioners have no case against his client.
Olanipekun said he has carefully scrutinised the petitioners’ final written address and found that there was nowhere in the address that they made out any case against his client, noting that the petitioners have also failed to prove their claim that a referendum was indeed held.
Olanipekun submitted that the petitioners did not in any way supply evidence on how the so-called referendum was conducted and who conducted it. He urged the court to dismiss the petition, describing it as frivolous, baseless and without merit.
INEC’s lead lawyer Yunus Usman (SAN) was of the view that the petition lacked merit. He argued that INEC only conducted an election that is known to law, not a referendum as claim by the petitioners.
Describing the petitioners’ claims as strange to INEC and the law, Usman urged the court to uphold INEC’s decision to declare President Buhari and the APC as winners of the lawfully-held presidential election.
He equally prayed the court to dismiss the petition with substantial cost to serve as a deterrent to those who may wish to waste the court’s time by filing frivolous and baseless petitions in future election.
Arguing in similar vein, APC’s lead lawyer, Akin Olujinmi (SAN) prayed the court to dismiss the petition for being unmeritorious.
At the hearing of the petition on July 22, 2019 the petitioners called a witness, Yusuf Ibrahim, who adopted his written statement on oath as his evidence in the case, following which the witness was cross-examined by Yusuf Ali (SAN) for Buhari; Olujimi and Usman (for INEC.
While being cross-examined by Ali, Ibrahim said he voted in the February 16 referendum and that he was in the country on February 23 and voted during the presidential and National Assembly elections of that day.
He agreed that Buhari was elected and declared the winner of the presidential election of February, 23.
The witness added that he had no document attached to his witness’s statement on oath as evidence for the 50 million votes allegedly polled by his party’s candidate at the alleged presidential referendum.