The Presidential Election Petition Court has reconvened for the adoption of the written address by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, contesting the victory of President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the February 25 election.
Atiku, who was Nigeria’s Vice-President from May 1999 to May 2007, was personally present in court during today’s session (Tuesday).
The focus of today’s hearing is primarily on the parties adopting their respective arguments that are already before the court.
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Upon the completion of this process, the court will decide whether to schedule a date for judgment or reserve judgment.
The petitioners, which include PDP and Atiku, as well as Labour Party (LP) and its candidate, Peter Obi, are seeking the nullification of Tinubu’s victory in the February 25 poll.
They are both requesting to be declared the winners of the election or a rerun to be conducted.
The parties have already submitted and exchanged their final written addresses, with the most recent being Tinubu’s response on July 24 to Atiku and PDP’s final written address.
While Obi and the LP presented 13 witnesses, numerous documents, and concluded their case on June 23, Atiku and the PDP called 27 witnesses, submitted documents, and also closed their case on June 23.
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In the petition by Obi and his party, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) called one witness, submitted some documents, and concluded its case on July 4.
The same witness was presented by INEC for Atiku and the PDP’s petition on July 3.
Counsel for Tinubu and his Vice, Kashim Shettima, along with the APC, completed their case in both petitions on July 5. Though they called one witness and presented documents, the APC did not call any witnesses in its defense for both petitions.
However, the ruling party submitted documents, including court judgments.
The three respondents (INEC, APC, and Tinubu) urged the court to dismiss the petitions, arguing that the petitioners failed to establish their cases with credible evidence.
