Tension, as Nigerians await final verdict on 2019 presidential election dispute

Written by on September 11, 2019

The anticipated judgment of the Presidential Election Tribunal on the petition brought by the PDP and its candidate in the 2019 presidential elections, Atiku Abubakar, challenging the emergence of President Muhammadu Buhari as winner of the polls, is underway.

At the proceedings, the first application to be ruled upon by the tribunal was the one filed by the first respondent, INEC, asking the tribunal to strike out the petition on the grounds that the petitioners failed to join the vice-presidential candidate of the APC, Yemi Osinbajo, as a party to the petition.

INEC said Osinbajo is an indispensable party to the petition and that failure to join him in the petition, robbed the Tribunal of jurisdiction to hear the petitioners’ case.

After considering the arguments for and against the motion, Head of the five-man panel, Justice Mohammed Garba, dismissed the motion, saying it is not well-grounded in law as a vice presidential candidate is not a necessary party in an election petition but an appendage of the presidential candidate who nominated him.

The decision was upheld by the other members of the Tribunal.

Meanwhile, security is beefed up within the vicinity of the Court of Appeal, Abuja, with officials of the Nigeria Police, the Department of State Services and the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, mounting security checks at both ends of the road leading to the court.

Lawyers and Journalists, who arrived the court premises located in the Three Arms’ zone, were subjected to checks by security personnel.

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