Final Written Address to Tribunal: Atiku gives 4 reasons 2023 election, Tinubu’s victory will not stand

Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Petitioners, have given four substantive reasons the presidential election held on 25th February 2023, as well as the victory of candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu, cannot stand the scrutiny of the law.

Alhaji Abubakar made the assertions in his Final Written Address to the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) sitting in the Court Of Appeal holden at Abuja in the matter of the election to the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The Petition, with file no: CA/PEPC/05/2023, has the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Tinubu and APC as the Respondents. 

Atiku said that the Petition was “filed to challenge the undue and wrongful return of [Tinubu] by [INEC] as winner in the Presidential Election… and the wrongful result declared on 1st March 2023 in an election that has been adjudged as the worst in the annals of general elections in Nigeria given the brazenness of the subversion of the will of the Nigerian voters, despite the enactment of a new Electoral Act, the introduction of promising technological innovations to ensure transparency, massive investment of public funds and guarantees by the election body”. 

He regretted that the Electoral Act 2022 which was introduced to usher in a new regime in election management and dispute resolution, in response to the yearnings for an end to the perennial flawed election cycles, each cycle getting worse than its predecessor, was blatantly abused by INEC just to give leverage to Tinubu.

He urged the Court to “dispense with the archaic and analogue methods of proof and embrace the progress made by technology in this new paradigm shift improving and pushing the traditional boundaries of burden of proof in the quest to attain substantial justice”.

According to him, the “Independent” National Electoral Commission manipulated the technologies earlier put in place to ensure transparency, and wrongfully returned Tinubu as winner at about 4.00am on 1st March 2023, when INEC itself admitted that substantial percentage of the results had not been transmitted to the collation system for verification as required by law.

He stated: “Under the cover of the so-called “technical glitch” excuse which the 1st Respondent never explained, the results were deliberately manipulated through suppression and discounting of the votes of the 1st Petitioner and inflation of the votes of the 2nd Respondent.

“This deliberate bypass of the use of the prescribed verification technology was nationwide, and substantially flawed the return of the 2nd Respondent. 

“The said 1st Respondent equally proceeded to declare the 2nd Respondent winner when the 2nd Respondent did not meet the mandatory constitutional requirement to secure not less than a quarter of the votes cast in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

“This was in addition to the numerous infractions and corrupt practices perpetrated by the Respondents. 

“Notwithstanding, the 1st Respondent unequivocally and clearly admitted in its pleadings… which was never refuted nor retracted, that the Petitioners won 21 States of the Federation in the presidential election, which is an admission against interest.

“As a result of non-use of collation by electronic transmission, the 1st Respondent later altered the admitted result of 21 States for the 1st Petitioner to 12 States. 

“Worse still, the 2nd Respondent is constitutionally disabled from contesting for the office of President of Federal Republic of Nigeria in the light of the criminal forfeiture judgment against him for the sum of $460,000 for narcotics related crime (proceeds of crime) in the United States, as well as holding as a presidential candidate, dual citizenship of Nigeria and Guinea, having voluntarily acquired the citizenship of the Republic of Guinea, in addition to presenting forged documents to the electoral body. 

“Given that collation of results in the said election was to be technology-based, the 1st Respondent in further act to suppress the actual results of the election, applied for leave of this Honourable Court to reconfigure the BVAS machines used for the election, with an undertaking to preserve the data used in the presidential election. In order to suppress evidence, the 1st Respondent purged the entire BVAS machines of all the data as confirmed by INEC in their letter dated 17th May 2023.”

Atiku, therefore, presented the following four issues before the court for determination:

1. Whether the return of the 2nd Respondent in the election to the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria held on 25th day of February 2023 was not invalidated by reason of substantial noncompliance with the novel and mandatory provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022 on electronic transmission of results for collation and verification.
2. Whether the 2nd Respondent was lawfully declared and returned as the winner of the Presidential election held on 25th day of February 2023, having not secured one-quarter of the valid votes cast in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja as required by the Constitution of the Federal of Nigeria, 1999 (As Amended).
3. Whether the 2nd Respondent was not disqualified under the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (As Amended) to contest the Presidential election held on 25th day of February 2023, having regard to order of criminal forfeiture arising from drug-related offence, his declaration of allegiance to a country other than Nigeria, and presenting a forged certificate to the 1st Respondent?
4. Whether the 1st Respondent was not wrong in returning the 2nd Respondent when he was not duly elected by majority of the lawful votes cast in the election. 

Expect the summary of evidence in succeeding bulletins…

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