Summary Of Final Presidential Tribunal Ruling On Atiku vs Buhari So Far

The Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal has so far delivered a final judgment on nine petitions brought before it on the 2019 Presidential election involving President Muhammadu Buhari and Atiku Abubakar, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Nigeria’s main opposition party.

Naija News recalls that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared President Buhari who participated in the election on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Nigeria’s ruling party, winner of the February 23 Presidential election.

The commission had said figures from the 36 states and Federal Capital Territory (FCT) gave Buhari 15,191,847 votes, while Atiku came second with 11,262,978 votes.

Challenging the results at the election tribunal in his 139-page petition, Abubakar said the results from INEC server showed he polled 18,356,732 votes to defeat Buhari who had 16,741,430 votes.

INEC, on the other hand, said it had no central server where election results were transmitted as claimed by the PDP and Abubakar.

At the resumption of proceedings today, the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal delivered the final judgment on nine petitions presented before it by Buhari and APC as well as Atiku and PDP.

Below is the summary of the judgment so far…

1. The Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal dismissed INEC’s claim that Atiku’s lead counsel, Livy Uzoukwu (SAN) is not a legal practitioner.
2. The Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal dismissed INEC’s claim that Yemi Osinbajo, Nigeria’s Vice President should have been joined in the suit alongside President Buhari.
3. The Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal refused INEC’s request to strike out some of the witnesses of the PDP.
4. The Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal refused INEC’s request to dismiss Atiku’s prayer seeking President Buhari’s disqualification from the 2019 Presidential election.
5. The Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal struck out PDP’s argument that President Buhari and Vice President Osinbajo used Federal government funds through TraderMoni to induce voters.
6. The Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal dismissed President Buhari’s contention that Atiku was not qualified to file the petition challenging his election.
7. The Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal dismissed PDP’s argument that security operatives rigged the 2019 Presidential election to favour President Buhari.
8. The Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal dismissed President Buhari’s response challenging Atiku’s motion on alleged none use of card readers.
9. The Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal dismissed PDP’s motion alleging abuse of court processes in APC’s applications.