Tribunal Gifts Atiku Three Weeks To Call 100 Witnesses Against Tinubu

• Consolidates PDP, LP, APM’s petitions 

BY SEGUN ADEBAYO AND VICTOR BUORO – The Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) sitting in Abuja has approved the three weeks requested by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)’s candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, to present 100 witnesses and prove his case that Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) did not validly win the February 25 presidential poll.

Delivering its pre-hearing report on Tuesday, the Justice Haruna Tsammani-led five-member panel also noted that parties in the cases have submitted a total of 166 witnesses that would be called to testify in the petitions.

The Tribunal explained that star witnesses in the petition would only be allowed to adopt their written depositions, make oral submissions and identify documents where it is required.

Also, the Tribunal gave the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) only two days to present its defence while the President-elect, Bola Tinubu and the APC got five days each to offer their defence against the petitions.

The pre-hearing report read by Justice Stephen Adah equally drew the Parties’ attention to the fact that Atiku’s petition has been consolidated with those filed by both the Labour Party (LP) flag bearer, Mr Peter Obi and the Allied Peoples Movement (APM).

According to the Tribunal, consolidating the three petitions would ensure justice in the matter, adding that the parties would adopt their final briefs of argument to enable it to fix a date for judgement.

The former Vice President had in his joint petition with the PDP, marked: CA/PEPC/05/2023, applied for the withdrawal of the Certificate of Return issued to APC’s Bola Tinubu by INEC, insisting that his declaration as the presidential election winner was “invalid by reason of non- compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022”.

Also arguing that Tinubu’s election was invalid by reason of corrupt practices, Atiku said; “The 2nd Respondent was not duly elected by majority of lawful votes cast at the Election.

“The 2nd Respondent was at the time of the Election not qualified to contest the Election”, Atiku added while listing grounds he said the court should consider to nullify Tinubu’s election.

The Wazirin Adamawa therefore prayed the court to declare him winner of the presidential election, having secured the second highest number of lawful votes cast at the election.

Similarly, the former Vice President informed the court that the President-elect had “demonstrated inconsistency as to his actual date of birth, secondary schools he attended (Government College Ibadan); his State of origin, gender, actual name; certificates evidencing Universities attended (Chicago State University).”

Additionally, Atiku said; “The purported degree Certificate of the 2nd Respondent allegedly acquired at the Chicago State University did not belong to him but to a female (F) described as “F” in the Certificate bearing the name Bola Tinubu.

“The 2nd Respondent did not disclose to the 1st Respondent (INEC) his voluntary acquisition of the citizenship of Republic of Guinea with Guinean Passport No. D00001551, in addition to his Nigerian citizenship. The 2nd Respondent is hereby given notice to produce the original copies of his said two passports”.

He further told the court that Tinubu “has record of criminal forfeiture of the sun of $460, 000. 00 for the drug related offence before the United States Judge, John A Nordberg in the 2nd Respondent’s First Heritage Account No. 263226700, being proceeds of narcotics-trafficking in violation of 18 U. S. C 1956 and 1947 for an offence involving narcotics”.

He maintained that the APC Standard bearer failed to meet the required constitutional threshold and “is constitutionally disabled from contesting for office of President of Federal Republic of Nigeria”.

But replying through his team of lawyers led by Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), President-elect Tinubu, queried the legal competence of Atiku’s petition, describing him as a consistent serial loser who since 1993, has been moving from one political party to another just to grab power as Nigeria’s elected President