Tribunal hands down another judgement against Atiku, PDP

In another judgement that favours the APC and its candidate Muhammadu Buhari, the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal on Wednesday ruled it lacks the jurisdiction to entertain allegations the PDP and its candidate Atiku brought against V.P Yemi Osinbajo as Buhari’s running mate in the Feb 23 election.

The APC and Buhari lawyers argued  the Tribunal lacked jurisdiction to entertain allegations of corrupt practices and voters’ inducement raised against the vice presidential candidate,

The Tribunal also upheld the argument by Buhari’s legal team that it was wrong for the petitioners to raise such grievous allegations against the Vice President without joining him (Osinbajo) as a party in the petition to enable him to defend himself.

Atiku and PDP had, in their petition, claimed that Osinbajo engaged in voters inducement by spending funds not appropriated by the National Assembly or approved, in the pretext of Trader Moni and other social intervention programmes of the government.

Since the ruling began Wednesday, the tribunal has struck out four petitions–one against INEC, in favour of Atiku, while others are in favour of the APC and its candidate.

earlier struck out an appeal filed by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, seeking to strike out the petition of the PDP, and Atiku for not joining Osinbajo.