Alhaji Abubakar Atiku, the Presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the previous election, expressed his concern to the Presidential Election Petition Court about the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) acting as a meddlesome interloper in its defense of Bola Ahmed Tinubu regarding his qualifications for the election.
Atiku specifically leveled accusations against the electoral body, claiming that it was unnecessarily involving itself in matters that did not concern it.
During Friday’s proceedings, INEC’s counsel, Mr. Kemi Pinhero SAN, presented a motion on notice, requesting the Court to strike out some of the allegations made by Atiku against Tinubu in his petition.
The electoral body urged the Court to dismiss 32 allegations made by Atiku against Tinubu in the petition challenging Tinubu’s declaration as the winner of the February 25 Presidential election.
INEC argued that these allegations, which constituted 32 paragraphs in Atiku’s petition, lacked jurisdiction and should be disregarded by the Court.
However, Atiku’s lead counsel, Chief Chris Uche SAN, filed a counter affidavit opposing INEC’s request and called on the Court to reject the electoral body’s stance.
Uche argued in the counter affidavit that it was not INEC’s responsibility to fight or argue Tinubu’s case, as Tinubu was the second defendant in the petition.
Specifically, Atiku’s lead counsel insisted that INEC should maintain neutrality but instead took on the role of a meddlesome interloper by defending Tinubu, which went against the provisions of the law.
Consequently, he requested the Court to dismiss INEC’s motion, citing it as a gross abuse of the court process, lacking merit, and highly incompetent.
Meanwhile, Justice Haruna Simon Tsammani, the Chairman of the Court, has scheduled the ruling for the date of judgment in the substantive petition.
