Ime Akpan
Assembles 20 senior lawyers, 400 witnesses for the epic legal battle
The presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday filed a petition at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal challenging the declaration of President Muhammadu Buhari as winner of the February 23 presidential election.
Atiku, in the petition filed alongside the PDP, asked to be declared the winner of the election.
Alternatively, he asked the tribunal to nullify the election and order a fresh one that would be counted in line with the country’s electoral laws.
Atiku and the PDP said they had assembled over 400 witnesses to testify at the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal.
Equally, the litigants said they had assembled 20 senior lawyers who are tested in election petitions matters to handle the legal tussle.
The national legal adviser of the party, Mr. Mr. Emmanuel Enoidem, who spoke to journalists at the Court of Appeal, Abuja venue of the tribunal said petitioners had 21 days from the date the final results of the presidential election were announced on February 27, 2019 to file their petitions.
“The last day for the petition was actually tomorrow (Tuesday) but we decided to file it today (Monday). We asked that our candidate who won the election massively across the country be declared the winner of that election.
“In the alternative, we also asked that the results be set aside on the grounds of irregularities which were very apparent across the country.
“We have a pool of 20 SANs, who are tested in election petitions matters, and other senior lawyers who are also working with them. So we are very ready for the petition. The petition is well packaged.
“The depositions are well put together. More than 400 witnesses are going to testify in this petition. Nigerians are at home with what happened on February in this country, the sham they called election.
“Of course, we are going to re-present the facts to Nigerians as the facts are already in the domains on Nigerians. We are not going to manufacture facts,” he said.
Also speaking, member of the legal team, Mr. Mike Ozekhome described the petitions as “solid”, “strong” and “unassailable.”
However, Ozekhome lamented the non-cooperative attitude of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) with the petitioners in terms of getting access to the electoral materials.
“We have up to tomorrow (today, Tuesday), to file but we have been having some challenges from INEC itself in terms of assessing materials used during the elections. But I believe we will get there.
“Our petition is quite solid, strong unassailable and we believe that by the grace of God the true keeper and owner of the mandate will have his mandate given to him.”
Commenting on calls on Atiku to drop the legal action in the interest of peace in the country, the party’s national secretary, Senator Umaru Ibrahim Tsauri said: “If you are cheated in Nigeria and in the world over, the last resort for the common man is the court. We believe, we are very confident and we are very optimistic that we won the election.
“There is always a difference between common sense and legal jurisprudence. In my region, if you have 10 children and they cannot feed themselves and you go and look for food for them and you kill somebody in the process, the law does not say you should not be killed. The law says you should be killed!
“So, simply because people are saying let Nigeria be in peace, it does not mean we should not seek redress and reclaim our mandate. We still stand on our point that we won the election and we are going to claim our mandate.
“We want the tribunal to look at the merit of our litigation approach. Like you know, the court has given us the go ahead to inspect the election materials, which INEC has not given us the go ahead up till now. We want the court to insist on us inspecting the election materials. Then after that we will open the arguments. We have our team of lawyers, who are very conversant with the procedure, very qualified, very fearless and very wise.”
On the party’s chances to get free and fair judgment from the court, he said: “We know that we are dealing with a government that is ruthless and government that does not respect law. We know. But then, that does not mean we should not seek redress from the court because if we don’t do that it means the courts are not useful. So, we are coming to the court. They should declare us and I believe the court is going to do the right thing because we are very confident; if you start with the Court of Appeal, these are judges that you cannot compromise anytime of the day. Their integrity is guaranteed and we believe in them. They will do the right thing and the right thing is to get our mandate,” he said.
