The Presidential Petition Tribunal (Court) to day Wednesday 11 September 2019 dismissed the petition by the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Atiku Abubakar, in the 2019 general elections challenging the victory of President Muhammadu Buhari at the polls.
The court in an unanimous ruling by the five Judges, said that the petitioner did not prove beyond reasonable doubt its case in the election.
Here are the key rulings in the judgement:
On Atiku’s Nationality
The Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) struck out the argument by the All Progressives Congress (APC) that presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) Atiku Abubakar was not qualified to contest the last presidential election because he is allegedly not a Nigerian by birth.
In its 6th ruling on Wednesday, the court said its power does not include determining the qualification of a petitioner in an election dispute.
It said its powers was to determine whether a person elected to the office of the President was validly elected and not to query the qualification of the petitioners to have contested the election, whose outcome was being queried.
The court said the APC ought to have filed a cross-petition if it sought to challenge the qualification of the 1st petitioner (Atiku) to have contested the election.
On President Buhari’s Qualification
The Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) dismissed the argument by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) seeking to disqualify President Muhammadu Buhari, the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate for the 2019 General Election.
The court ruled that Buhari possess the West African School Certificate Examination, (WASCE), to contest the 2019 presidential election.
It said Buhari was not only qualified, but eminently qualified to contest the election, saying that the petitioners (Atiku Abubakar and PDP), could not run away from the fact that Buhari obtained WASCE which qualified him for the election.
The court said apart from being qualified, the president also obtained other certificates to validate claims that he is eminently qualified for the presidential poll.
The Chairman of the tribunal, Garba Mohammed, therefore struck out the claims by the PDP and Atiku that Buhari did not possess the needed qualification for the election and that he presented false information to INEC.
INEC Server
The Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) declared that there was no evidence that INEC transmitted the results of the 2019 presidential election electronically to any server.
Delivering judgement on the matter, the chairman of the tribunal Justice Mohammed Garba said that the petitioners – PDP and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar failed to prove the existence of an INEC server or that the electoral commission transmitted results electronically.
The court held that there was no law in place in Nigeria that allows electronic transmission of results or the transmission of result using card reader going by the electoral act.
“I have carefully examined and examined Exhibit 28 (INEC Manual for Election) tendered by the petitioners, I did not see where there is provision for electronic transmission of result of election,” Justice Garba said.
