The PDP presidential candidate, Atiku abubakar and that of the Labour Party, Peter Obi have urged the presidential election petition tribunal to cancel the February 25, presidential election and order for a rerun.
The relief was contained in their separate final written addresses which Atitku and Obi adopted through their legal teams on Tuesday.
Atiku told the court, that INEC could not have declared Bola Tinubu of the APC, the winner because Tinubu did not score 25% of the total votes cast in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja and that Tinubu forged academic certificate from Chicago University, USA. Therefore, the court should declare him, Atiku the winner of the presidential election or order for a rerun.
On his part, Obi accused INEC of conducting an election, characterised by substantial non compliance with the Electoral Act, guidelines and other regulations.
He told the court that the election results upon which INEC declared Tinubu the winner were fake, full of blurred pictures and figures and that the court should nullify the February 25, presidential election.
In its reply on point of law, INEC urged the court to over-rule and dimisss the prayers of Atiku and Obi for lacking in merits, adding that the petitioners failed to discharge the burden of prove required by law.
“We urge your lordships to dismiss the petitions for lacking in merit as the petitioners failed to discharge the burden of prove required by law.
“The petitioners also failed to establish that the non electronic transmission of result was as a result of human interference.
“The issue of non compliance with the Electoral Act could not be established by the petitioners, therefore we urge your lordships to dismiss these petitions,” INEC said.
Also, Tinubu and APC, while adopting their final written addresses told the court that a superior court of record has once ruled that even if an election is cancelled in the FCT, it will still not affect the total election results, adding that the law sees Abuja as the 37th state during election.
“The petitioners failed to tell this court that NIEC declared double election results and could also not debunk the facts that elections were held and results announced.
“On the issue of dual citizenship raised by the petitioners against Tinubu, the law says that a citizen by birth can not be disqualified in an election for mere being a citizen of another country.
“Chicago University has also not issued an oral or documentary evidence disclaiming the certificate and studentship of Tinubu.
“We urge your lordships to discountenance and dismiss all the arguments put forward by the petitioners and uphold the February 25, presidential election, “Tinubu and APC said.
In their separate interviews with newsmen after the sittings, Atiku’s lawyer, Chris Uche (SAN) and Obi’s lawyer Livy Uzoukwu (SAN) all expected the court to deliver judgments in line with their reliefs.
Chris Uche: “As you can see, we all adopted our final written addresses which are our final submissions in this case.
“The matter has been adjourned for judgment. The ball is now in the court of this tribunal.”
Livy Uzoukwu: “We presented 18,888 blurred election results which INEC relied on to declare Tinubu, the winner of the February 25, presidential election.
“How can an institution like INEC certified blured and blanked election documents? INEC should stop taking Nigerians for granted.
“Other countries have moved on, the way we conduct elections in this country shows that we are still behaving as if we are in the primitive age.”
Our correspondent reports that the five man panel of justices however reserved judgments for a date that will we be communicated to the parties in the case.
