Nigeria’s main opposition People’s Democratic Party and its presidential candidate in the February 23 presidential election, Atiku Abubakar, have assembled over 400 witnesses to testify at the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal.
Emmanuel Enoidem, PDP’s national legal adviser, disclosed this to journalists on Monday at the premises of the Court of Appeal in Abuja after a joint petition of the party and its presidential candidate was filed at the tribunal’s secretariat.
The PDP and Atiku are challenging the victory of President Muhammadu Buhari and his All Progressives Congress at the poll.
Buhari, 76, had defeated his main challenger Atiku Abubakar, 72, with 56 percent to 41 percent of total valid votes cast at the February 23 polls.
Enoidem told journalists on Monday that the petitioners would be represented by over 20 Senior Advocates of Nigeria. The petitioners had 21 days from the date the final results of the presidential election were announced on February 27, 2019, making Tuesday (today) the deadline.
“The last day for the petition was actually tomorrow (Tuesday) but we decided to file it today (Monday). We asked that our candidate who won the election massively across the country be declared the winner of that election,” Enoidem said.
“In the alternative, we also asked that the results be set aside on the grounds of irregularities which were very apparent across the country. We have a pool of 20 SANs, who are tested in election petitions matters, and other senior lawyers who are also working with them. So we are very ready for the petition. The petition is well packaged.
“The depositions are well put together. More than 400 witnesses are going to testify in this petition. Nigerians are at home with what happened on February in this country, the sham they called election.
“Of course, we are going to re-present the facts to Nigerians as the facts are already in the domains on Nigerians. We are not going to manufacture facts,” he said.
While the order of the tribunal permitting the petitioners to have access to the electoral materials used for the conduct of the election had yet to be enforced, Enoidem said his party and its candidates were able to beat the time in filing the petition.
Mike Ozekhome (SAN), a member of the legal team of the petitioners, said the petition was “strong, solid and unassailable”.
