Presidential Tribunal: Court Strikes Out Part Of Atiku’s Petition Against Security Personnel

The tension created on Wednesday among supporters of the PDP and APC as the ruling of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal continues is very palpable.

The tribunal in its second ruling upheld the argument by the Independent National Electoral Commission, that it was wrong for the Peoples Democratic Party, and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar to raise criminal allegations of intimidation, harassment, corruption against security personnel and some individuals who are not parties in the petition.

The Tribunal in its ruling stated that the court lacked the powers to entertain any criminal allegations against any person who is not before it.

The court thereafter struck out the petition by Atiku and his party where the allegations were contained.

The Tribunal had earlier upheld Atiku and PDP contention that, issues of qualification and whether or not a candidate supplied false personal information to INEC before the election, could be heard before or after an election.

The court said questions about a candidate’s qualification could be heard by either a High Court or an election tribunal.

It held that it has jurisdiction to determine the lingering issue of whether or not Buhari was qualified to contest the election.