HDP drags APC, INEC to Election Tribunal

The Hope Democratic Party, HDP, has taken President Muhammadu Buhari, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and the All Progressives Congress, APC, to the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal over alleged unlawful ways and manners the February 23 presidential election was conducted and the winner declared. 

The petitioners, HDP, and its presidential candidate, Ambrose Owuru, are challenging the legality of the election earlier slated for February 16 but later shifted to February 23.

The petition is asking the Tribunal to nullify the purported election of February 23 and the subsequent declaration of Buhari as the winner on the grounds that INEC has no power under any law to shift the February 16 date to 23.

The two petitioners who claimed to have been excluded from participating in the February 23 poll, averred that the election was invalid by reason of non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act stipulating the conditions under which election can be lawfully postponed. 

Among others, the main grouse of the petitioners was that they were validly nominated for the 2019 general election, but were unlawfully excluded from the said elections by INEC by delisting their names and party logo from the ballot papers. 

Another grouse of the petitioners was that INEC placed a false version of their registered party logo on the ballot papers for elections and cost them the chances of realizing their political ambition in the 2019 general election. 

Meanwhile, an ex-parte motion filed by the petitioners seeking to serve President Buhari with their petition and other processes is to be heard on March 28.