Presidential Election Petition: APC Files Counter Appeal Against Atiku, PDP at Supreme Court
In what can be described as an apparent reaction to the Peoples Democratic Party’s application before the Supreme Court, the All Progressives Congress has filed motions challenging sections of the judgment delivered by the Presidential Election Peition Tribunal in September.
In their cross appeal, the APC is asking the Supreme Court to nullify a number of evidence and witnesses provided by the PDP which was accepted at the Court of Appeal.
Recall that we earlier reported that the PDP had on Tuesday filed 66 grounds of appeal before the apex court challenging the judgment of the tribunal.
Atiku Abubakar and his party the PDP, told the Supreme Court that the tribunal erred in law when it ruled that President Buhari did not need to submit an actual certificate before INEC as part of documents in his CF001.
They also said the presidential tribunal was wrong to rule that the PDP did not provide sufficient evidence to back its claim that President Buhari did not attend a secondary school among other issues.
But in a counter application filed on the same day, the APC asked the apex court to reconsider the decision of the election tribunal to accept evidence proffered by the prosecution witness numbers 40, 59 and 60.
The APC is challenging the appearance of Atiku Abubakar’s spokesperson, Segun Showunmi as witness. Mr Showunmi’s appearance at the tribunal had resulted in the PDP’s presentation of a video evidence containing statements made by an INEC official from Bayelsa, Mike Igini, who said that INEC had planned to transmit results to a central server.
The other two witnesses whose appearance the APC is challenging are the witness number 59 and 60; David Njorga was cited by the petitioners as a data expert, and Joseph Gbenga, presented by the PDP as a data analyst.
The APC also wants the apex court to remove at least 42 paragraphs from the PDP’s documents.
The request made by the APC is similar to an initial request brought by the party challenging the PDP’s petition at the tribunal.
The APC application was brought by its lawyer, Mr Lateef Fagbemi (SAN).
The Supreme Court is yet to fix a date for hearing of the appeals.
Mr Abubakar and the PDP seek the nullification of the February election won by President Muhammadu Buhari and the declaration of Mr Abubakar as president-elect.
The presidential election tribunal had earlier ruled in favour of Mr Buhari and the APC.
