PEPC: Atiku, Obi, Tinubu adopt finial addresses Tuesday

By Vivian Okejeme, Abuja

The Presidential Election Petition Court(PEPC) sitting in Abuja, is gradually grinding to an end, as two main petitioners seeking to nullify the election of President Bola Tinubu, adopt their final written addresses, Tuesday.

This stage is a precursor to the fixing of judgement date for all the petitions as it concerns the February 25 presidential election before the Justice Haruna Tsammani-led court by a former Vice President and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, as well as the one that was filed by candidate of the Labour Party, LP, Mr. Peter Obi.

On March 1, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, declared that Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, won the presidential election that held on February 25, ahead of 17 other candidates that participated in the contest.

According to the electoral empire, Tinubu scored a total of 8,794,726 votes to defeat the two major contenders, Atiku Abubakar of the PDP, who came second with a total of 6,984,520 votes, and Mr. Obi of the LP, who came third with a total of 6,101,533 votes.

Irked by the outcome of the election, the duo, in their separate petitions, claimed that they won the presidential poll, even as they challenged Tinubu’s eligibility to contest the election.

The petitioners, aside from praying the court to declare that President Tinubu did not secure the majority of lawful votes that were cast at the election, are equally seeking the withdraw of the Certificate of Return that was issued to him by INEC.

Specifically, they are praying the court to order a fresh presidential election, with the exclusion of President Tinubu whom they argued was ab-initio, not qualified to participate in the Poll.

While Obi closed his case after he called 13 witnesses that testified and tendered several documentary exhibits, Atiku, produced 27 witnesses and equally tendered exhibits before the court.

On their part, both INEC and President Tinubu wrapped up their defence in both cases with one witness each, while the APC failed to produce any witness before the court.