As a precursor to the fixing of judgement date, the Justice Haruna Tsammani-led five-member Presidential Election Petition Court, PEPC, sitting in Abuja has directed all the parties to appear before it on Tuesday to adopt their final briefs of argument.
The court, in a notice it sent to the parties, invited them to adopt their written address with respect to the petition that was lodged against President Bola Tinubu by a former Vice President and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, as well as the one that was filed by candidate of the Labour Party, LP, Mr. Peter Obi.
It will be recalled that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had on March 1, announced that Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, won the presidential election that was held on February 25, ahead of 17 other candidates that participated in the contest.
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It declared that Tinubu scored a total of 8,794,726 votes to defeat the two major contenders, Alhaji Atiku of the PDP, who came second with a total of 6,984,520 votes, and Mr. Obi of the LP, who came third with a total of 6,101,533 votes.
However, dissatisfied with the outcome of the election, both Atiku and Obi approached the court to invalidate it.
The duo, in their separate petitions, claimed that they won the presidential poll, even as they challenged Tinubu’s eligibility to contest the election.
The petitioners, aside from praying the court to declare that President Tinubu did not secure the majority of lawful votes that were cast at the election, are equally seeking the withdrawal of the Certificate of Return that was issued to him by INEC.
Alternatively, they are praying the court to order a fresh presidential election, with the exclusion of President Tinubu whom they argued was ab-initio, not qualified to participate in the Poll.
The court had on July 5, concluded its hearing of both Atiku and Obi’s petitions
While Obi closed his case after he called 13 witnesses that testified and tendered several documentary exhibits, Atiku produced 27 witnesses and equally tendered exhibits before the court.
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On their part, both INEC and President Tinubu wrapped up their defence in both cases with one witness each, while the APC failed to produce any witness before the court.
However, all the Respondents, in their respective written addresses, urged the court to dismiss all the petitions for want of merit.
They argued that the petitioners were unable to discharge the burden of proof that was placed on them by the law.
According to the Respondents, whereas the petitioners raised allegations that had elements of crime in them, they, however, failed to prove them beyond reasonable doubt as required by the law.
Though five petitions were initially filed to nullify Tinubu’s election, however, the Action Alliance, AA, on May 8, withdrew its case, even as the Action Peoples Party, APP, followed suit two days later by also discontinuing further proceedings on its own petition.
The Allied Peoples Movement, APM, which refused to withdraw its own petition, had on July 14, adopted its final written address, even as the court reserved its judgement on the petition.