President Muhammadu Buhari and
the All Progressives Congress (APC) have closed their case at the hearing of
the petition brought by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) challenging Mr
Buhari’s election.
The president and his party made
this known at the continuation of the presidential election petition tribunal
on Thursday.
The lawyer representing Mr
Buhari, Wole Olanipekun, announced the decision of his client to close their
case, at the opening of the session on Thursday.
He told the court that they were
satisfied with the information already before the court and were subsequently
convinced of the need to close their case.
Mr Olanipekun said they took the
decision after studying all the documents presented by the PDP and other
matters that had arose in the trial.
“We have studied the hardware and
the software of the petition: the evidences presented by the petitioners
vis-a-vis the issues arising and the evidences we have also adduced.
“We are very satisfied with the
evidences we have led and we will be closing our case,” Mr Olanikpekun said.
The APC also argued that the
evidence presented by the PDP helped its submission.
According to the APC lawyer,
Lateef Fagbemi, his clients were eternally in grateful to the PDP.
“Normally it is the turn of the
third respondent to open our case. I have thought about it. If I am grateful to
chief Olanipekun, I am entirely grateful to the petitioners. With respect,
having reviewed our petition, there is no point to indulge in an overkill
exercise,” Mr Fagbemi said.
“For the third respondents, we
are satisfied with the cross-examination and evidences tendered in this case.
As the leader, I announce the closure of the third respondent’s case.”
Mr Buhari had opened his defence
on Tuesday, after the PDP closed its case.
Mr Buhari presented seven
witnesses who all focused on proving his educational qualifications during
their defence.
The Tribunal
The PDP and its presidential
candidate, Atiku Abubakar, are currently before the tribunal to contest the
victory of Mr Buhari at the February 23 presidential election.
Mr Buhari was declared the winner
of the election with 15,191,847 votes.
Mr Abubakar was the first
runner-up and polled 11,262,978 votes, according to the declared results.
The PDP, however, accused the
electoral umpire, INEC, of colluding with the ruling APC to rig the poll.
According to Mr Abubakar, his
party won the elections with over 1 million votes from details seen by the
petitioners during its investigation.
The PDP also alleged that Mr
Buhari did not qualify for the elections on educational grounds.
The PDP specifically accused INEC
of refusing to disclose results transmitted to its central server, because the
results favoured the party.
That claim has since been denied
by INEC. The commission insists it did not use a central server for the
collation of results, despite claims to the contrary by some of its staff.
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