Atiku, PDP Challenge Buhari’s Victory At Election Tribunal

Atiku Abubakar, the 2019 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and his party has jointly filed petition challenging the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari.

This comes 20 days after Mr Buhari was declared winner of this year’s presidential poll.

Under section 134 of the Electoral Act, 2010, any candidate that is not satisfied with the outcome of the presidential contest, is mandated to approach the tribunal with a petition, not later than 21 days after the result was announced. The tribunal is also expected to deliver its judgment in writing within 180 days from the date the petition was filed.

At the Court of Appeal, venue of the presidential election tribunal, the lawyers representing the parties were seen filling their petition Monday evening.

They filed the petition despite been prevented by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from accessing the materials used for the conduct of the presidential election.

The former vice president popularly known as Atiku lost the presidential race to Mr Buhari who ran for a second term in office on the platform of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC).

Buhari, who trounced his major challenger by 4 million votes to actualize his re-election bid, and his party also applied for access to the materials used for the election and their request was granted by the court.

The electoral body has refused the parties access, citing unavailability of the materials in its national headquarters as they were still at their respective state offices of the commission.

Filling their petition, Atiku and the PDP prayed the tribunal to nullify the poll and order for a fresh election that will be conducted in line with provisions of the electoral laws on grounds of irregularities.

The PDP candidate is also praying for an order declaring him as the bonafide winner of the 2019 presidential election.

The respondents in the suit are the APC, President Buhari, and INEC.