By Vivian Okejeme, Abuja
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) have described the 25 percent of votes in the country’s capital insistence as absurd and illogical.
At the resumed sitting of the presidential tribunal for adoption of final addresses by different parties, the Respondents urged the court to dismiss Peter Obi and Atiku Atiku’s petitions as completely lacking in merit.
The Petitioners Atiku Abubakar had urged the court to hold that he scored the majority of lawful votes cast in the February 25 polls while declaring that Tinubu’s alleged academic, court and diplomatic records were enough to disqualify him from running for office.
Responding, INEC maintained that the petitioners failed completely to discharge the burden placed on them by law against President Bola Tinubu’s victory.
INEC’s lead counsel, Abubakar Mahmoud SAN, argued that the arguments of the petitioner’s case is non-compliance with the Electoral Act, INEC Regulations and Guidelines, and use of technology in the election.
On the 25% votes of the FCT, INEC insisted that the claim is illogical and absurd, adding that it will create a situation where FCT voters would be given special status above other Nigerians living in other states.
Further in his adumbration, Mahmoud submitted that in evidence shows that accreditation and authentication of voters was effective and that the technical glitches cited by Atiku happened for about 4 hours but was resolved.
Concluding, INEC added that the technical glitches did not affect the outcome of the presidential election.
“Evidences adduced by the Petitioners showed that the BVAS actually did the work of capturing the image of the results band transmission to the INEC IREV.
“They have failed woefully to establish that there was human interference in the technical glitches that happened on election day.”
“The petitioners constructed certain things in their minds to which they failed to prove,” Mahmoud.
President Tinubu on his part asked the court to dismiss Atiku’s petition for lacking in merit.
Adopting his final addresses, Tinubu, through his counsel Wole Olanipekun SAN, insisted that uploading of polling unit results to INEC Results Viewing Portal, IReV, places no obligation on INEC regarding collation of results but was just for public view.
Specifically, Tinubu submitted that there was no line in the Atiku’s’ final address stating how many votes Atiku Abubakar actually scored, adding that documents PDP tendered were dumped on the court and it is not the duty of the court to do investigation of those documents.
Therefore, he urged the court to dismiss Atiku’s petition and uphold Tinubu’s victory.
“Your lordships are not father Christmas” to give parties whatever they want.
Olanipekun also argued that it will lead to “absurdity” to interpret the 1999 Constitution without looking at all the sections talking about FCT.
“FCT is the 37 state in Nigeria for the purpose of presidential election,” Olanipekun said.
Meantime, Justice Haruna Tsammani, reserved judgement for a later date that will be communicated to the parties.
