Presidential Election Tribunal Reserves Judgment In Hope Democratic Party Petition

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Tribunal

The Presidential Election Tribunal has reserved judgment in the petition filed by Hope Democratic Party and its presidential candidate, Ambrose Oworu, challenging the conduct of the February 23, 2019, presidential election.

The judgment was reserved on Monday after parties in the petition had adopted their final written addresses.

While adopting the final address of the party,  its lead counsel, Chukwunoyerem Njoku, asked the Tribunal to set aside the election of February 23rd on the ground that the electoral body did not follow condition precedent in the electoral act before postponing the election earlier scheduled for February 16.

He said this led to conducting   a referendum   and Oworu emerged winner of the referendum with over fifty million votes.

However, counsel for President MuhammaduBuhari, Wole Olanipekun, urged the tribunal to dismiss the petition on the grounds that it is  frivolous and  that the petitioners did not in any way adduce evidence on how the referendum was conducted , who conducted it in line with the provisions of the law.

Counsel for Independent National Electoral Commission, Yunus Usman, also aligned with Olanipekun that the claims of the two petitioners are strange to the electoral umpire.

 He, therefore, urged the tribunal to dismiss the petition with substantial cost to serve as a deterrent to those who may wish to file frivolous and baseless petitions in the 2023 elections.

The All Progressive Congress on its part also urged the tribunal to dismiss the petition for lacking in merit, its counsel, Akin Olujimi, said Its wholly misconceived by the two petitioners.