Atiku, PDP lose bid to override APC at S’Court as parties adopt final briefs at tribunal

It was a trying moment for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate for the February 23 poll, Atiku Abubakar, as the Supreme Court dismissed their appeals.

The apex court struck out suit no: SC/738/2019 challenging the ruling of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal on the motions filed by All Progressives Congress (APC) for being statute-barred.

The appellants’ lead counsel, Eyitayo Jegede (SAN), had informed the court that the appeal, having not been argued within 21 days allowed by law, had become statute-barred and therefore, was willing to withdraw same.

The ruling party had in July filed motions before the tribunal challenging the petition put in by Atiku and the PDP on the ground that it was faulty.

However, the respondents failed to file their response to the allegations, citing abuse of court process.

But the applicants later withdrew the very motion that the pair did not file their response.

In its ruling, the panel held that failure to file response in objection to the motion was an indication that they had nothing against the complaint.

Dissatisfied with the judgment, the pair sought an application at the apex court to upturn the decision of the tribunal which held that the petitioners lost their rights of objection to the APC’s application seeking the dismissal of their petition or expungement of some parts of their petition, having not filed a reply within the time prescribed by the law.

Since the withdrawal was not objected to by the respondents in the matter – INEC, Buhari and the APC, it was accordingly struck out.

When the five-man panel, led by Justice Datijo Mohammed, resumed after midday, it went straight to deliver judgment on the appeal, also filed by the pair challenging the decision of the Court of Appeal over request to access INEC server.

Not satisfied with the position of the tribunal, the petitioners had approached the appellate court to seek redress.

But the Court of Appeal on June 24 dismissed the appeal on the ground that granting the request would amount to delving into an application, which is the subject matter of the substantive petition.

Consequently, both Atiku and his party filed an appeal at the Supreme Court seeking to upturn the decision of the lower court.

But the apex court yesterday dismissed the appeal on the same ground that it was turned down by the lower court.

In a unanimous judgment delivered by Justice Santos Nweze, the court noted that the lower court was right to have restrained itself from the application of the petitioners, since the parties had joined issues on the existence or not of INEC’s central server.

In their arguments, Atiku, represented by Eyitayo Jegede (SAN), pleaded with the apex court to set aside the decision of the election tribunal, which refused to compel INEC to allow him access to the central server allegedly used for the conduct of the poll.

The senior lawyer told the five-man panel that access to the facility was instrumental to the joint petition filed by Atiku and PDP.

However, President Muhammadu Buhari, represented by Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), asked the court to dismiss the appeal on the ground that it had become academic.

Olanipekun drew the attention of the court to the fact that the life of the appeal would expire tomorrow and if granted, it would serve no purpose to the petitioners since they have long closed their case.

Olanipekun further told the court that parties in the suit will today adopt their final written addresses at the tribunal after which a judgment date would be fixed.

Olanipekun’s position was adopted by lawyers to INEC, Yunus Usman (SAN) and the APC, Charles Edosamwam.

Meanwhile, Jegede yesterday asserted that the petitioners had done justice to their petition at the tribunal.

His assertion followed the decision of the apex court declining his clients access to the central server of the electoral umpire.