The Presidential Election Petition Tribunal is yet to fix date for judgment in the petition filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Atiku Abubakar challenging President Muhammadu Buhari’s victory in the February 23 general election. Chairman of the five-man panel, Justice Mohammed Garba had while reserving the judgment on August 21, stated that the date would be communicated to all parties in the matter. ADVERTISEMENT But sources in the Court of Appeal in Abuja, venue of the tribunal sitting, said even though the tenure of the tribunal was set to expire on September 14, which would be Saturday, no date had been fixed for the judgment. ADVERTISEMENT Also, a senior lawyer in the matter informed Daily Trust that the judgment may not be delivered on September 13 but added that the 180 days provided in the constitution would lapse on September 14. “It may be on the 13th or before then. It may not necessarily be that date,” he said. In his submission, INEC lead counsel, Yunus Ustaz Usman (SAN) said the commission conducted the February 23 election in “total compliance with the Electoral Act and the petitioners can never dislodge that.” He therefore asked the panel “to dismiss the petition which was meant to test the river with both legs.” Also, lead counsel to Buhari, Wole Olanipekun (SAN) asked the tribunal to dismiss the petition for lacking in evidence, adding that Section 131 of the Nigerian Constitution did not demand certificate to be attached to the documents. “And apart from the hype being generated, there is nothing in law that would make your lordships to grant any of the reliefs being sought,” he said. Citing the case of Adeleke and Adekunle at the Court of Appeal, Olanipekun said the court’s position was that all he needed to do was to have education up to secondary school level. Counsel to the APC, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) said the PDP and Atiku, who alleged electoral irregularities in 119,973 polling units in 8,809 wards in 774 LGs, called only 62 witnesses out of which only five led evidence from the polling units. However, lead counsel to the PDP and Atiku, Levy Uzoukwu (SAN) asked the tribunal to hold that Section 138(1) of Electoral Act which provided that any candidate who submitted false information would nullify their candidacy. He added that by the judgment of the Supreme Court in Abdulrauf Moddibbo against Mustapha Usman SC/790/2019 delivered on 30th July, qualifications for election was not a pre-election matter.

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