Presidential election petition tribunal begins sitting
http://www.hrlnews.com/2019/05/presidential-election-petition-tribunal.html
The Presidential Election Petition Tribunal Wednesday commenced
hearing in the petitions filed by the candidate of the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 presidential election, Atiku
Abubakar, the PDP and three other political parties and their
presidential candidates against the victory of President Muhammadu
Buhari and his party the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Atiku, PDP and the others in their various petitions are seeking the
nullification of Buhari’s victory at the February 23 presidential poll
on allegations of widespread rigging, violations of the Electoral Act,
suppression of voters, violence amongst other electoral malpractices.
The others include the Hope Democratic Party (HDP) and its
presidential candidate, Chief Ambrose Owuru; Peoples Democratic Movement
(PDM) and its presidential candidate, Pastor Aminchi Habu and the
Coalition for Change (C4C) and its presidential candidate Jeff Ojinka.
“Justice will be done to all parties without fear or favour,
affection or ill-will,” said Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa, the president of
the Court of Appeal and the chairman of the tribunal.
Atiku in his petition specifically asked the tribunal to disqualify
Buhari winner of the February 23 presidential election, on the grounds
that he (Buhari) did not possess the requisite academic qualification to
contest for the office of President.
The petition is also premised on the ground that Buhari lied about
his academic qualification as well as schools attended in his form 001
submitted to INEC for purpose of contesting the 2019 presidential
election.
Atiku and PDP had filed their petition against the outcome of the
election at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) in Abuja,
on March 18, 2019.
While the HDP and Owuru’s petition marked CA/EPT/PRE/001/2019, was
filed March 7, the petition of the C4C along with its presidential
candidate and that of the PDM and its presidential candidate were file
same day, March 19, 2019.
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