Politics

APC: Atiku, Obi’ve no proof presidential election was rigged for Tinubu

The All Progressives Congress, (APC) says the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, failed to provide credible evidence to substantiate his allegation that the presidential election was rigged in favour of President Bola Tinubu.

The APC has also said the Labour Party (LP) and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi’s evidence against Tinubu was minuscule and deficient in credibility.

Both Atiku and Obi and their parties dragged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) before the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) in Abuja, challenging the victory of Tinubu in the February 25, 2023, presidential election.

The APC in its final brief of argument filed at the court through its team of lawyers led by Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, on Tuesday, argued that Atiku and the PDP were not entitled to any of the reliefs they were asking for in their petition.

The APC said the petitioners only dumped documents on the court and claimed that such documents were enough evidence to prove their allegations.

The party further argued that the petitioners failed to demonstrate or link the documents to specific allegations they raised against Tinubu’s victory.

According to the APC, it is not enough to merely identify exhibits without making the added effort to demonstrate their relevance by correlating them with witnesses adopted depositions.

The ruling party added that the allegation of the petitioners that the election was rigged was not tied to any specific polling unit in the local government areas of each of the 24 states whose elections they challenged in the petition.

The APC stressed that most of the exhibits tendered by Atiku were not relevant to the petition since they were not pleaded or set out any relevant fact.

“Aside from the allegation of non-qualification that the petitioners raised against the respondent, all other allegations in their petition are supposed to be set out on polling unit basis or proved beyond reasonable doubt,” it said.

The party, therefore, prayed the court to dismiss the petition and uphold the election of Tinubu.

On the alleged forfeiture of 460, 000 dollars following his alleged involvement in a drug-related case, the APC said there was no evidence that he was charged, convicted, or fined for any criminal case.

The party held that there were no criminal proceedings or pronouncement of verdict of guilty against Tinubu to warrant his disqualification.

On the allegation of dual citizenship, the APC argued that his possession of a Guinean Passport was not sufficient grounds to disqualify him from contesting or nullifying his election.

The APC stressed that the president is a bonafide Nigerian by birth and not by registration or neutralisation.

The Star