Tribunal fixes Aug 23 for final addresses, as HDP, Owuru close case

The Presidential Election Petition Tribunal Monday fixed August 23 for adoption of final written address in the suit filed by the Hope Democratic Party (HDP) and its presidential candidate, Ambrose Owuru, challenging the election of President Muhammadu Buhari.

The petition, challenging the victory of Buhari and his All Progressives Congress in the last presidential election, is anchored on the grounds that the rescheduling of the poll from February 16, 2019 to February 23, 2019 was done “without any recognisable presence or existence and or compliance with prescribed statutory conditions to do so.”

They contended that with the rescheduling, the presidential election was deemed “abandoned self-sabotaged and relinquished”, “giving way for the people’s controlled affirmative referendum election” which they said, by 50 million votes, validated Awuru as the elected president.

The respondents to the petition are the Independent National Electoral Commission, President Buhari and the APC.

The five-member tribunal led by Justice Mohammed Garba, fixed the date after the HDP and Owuru closed their case against Buhari.

Meanwhile, the HDP and its presidential candidate in the last election, Ambrose Owuru, have closed their case in the prosecution of their petition.

HDP and Owuru are challenging the outcome of the last election and sought to be declared winners, claiming to have won a referendum purportedly conducted after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) postponed the presidential election.

On Monday, lawyers to the petitioners, Eze Nnalugo called Yusuf Ibrahim as the first witness, who testified before the Presidential Election Petition Court in support of the petitioners’ claim.

However, the court rejected two other witnesses called by the petitioners, including a supeonaed witness, on the grounds that they had no written depositions, as required by law.

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