By Tony O'Riley-
A presidential tribunal hearing against the controversial victory of against Nigerian president, Mohammadu Buhari is to begin today Wednesday, May 8 in the country’s capital, Abuja.
Abubakar Atiku, the sitting president’s main rival , lodged the petition alongside four other petitions by aggrieved parties via the tribunal, all alleging massive electoral fraud. Atiku is requesting the tribunal revoke the February 23 election of President Buhari which he says was characterised by clear instances of voter fraud and malpractice. The challenge is an embarrassment to the elections which was stated in advance to be one that would be conducted fairly without bias or intimidation.
Many observers claim what occurred in the elections was the opposite of what was declared.The 2019 Nigerian elections led to several killings over the right to power, many soldiers were reported to have shot indiscriminately into crowds killing hundreds of victims at a time. One other petition with suit No. CA/PEPC/003/2019, was filed by the Coalition For Change, C4C under the leadership of its presidential candidate, Geff Chizee Ojinka. The petition alleges that Buhari’s re-election should be nullified because of substantial non compliance with mandatory statutory provisions.
The petitioners asserts serious irregularities affecting the election, “such that the 1st Respondent was not entitled to be returned as the Winner of the Presidential election”.Those challenging the legitimacy of the elections have also vowed to produce statistical evidence, forensic examiners and finger-print experts at the hearing of the petition. All the evidence is aimed at establishing the invalidity of the final votes attributed to Buhari- a former military ruler of the country who had already disappointed Nigerians after an initial four year rule.
Atiku and his party insist that data secured from INEC’s server, reveals a clear defeat against President Buhari with over 1.6million votes.
Aggrieved: Abubukar Atiku
“The Petitioners plead and shall rely on electronic video recordings, newspaper reports, photographs and photographic images of several infractions of the electoral process by the Respondents”, they added. More so, in one of the five grounds of the petition, Atiku and the PDP maintained that Buhari was not qualified to run for the office of the President, contending that he does not possess the constitutional minimum qualification of a school certificate.
FRAUDULENT
Buhari’s accusers have promised to produce alleged fraudulent votes awarded to Buhari and his party, at the polling units, at ward, local government , and state collating centres. They plan to demonstrate that Atiku was the legitimate winner of the elections, contrary to the declaration of the INEC declared, Atiku, garnered a total of 18,356,732 votes, ahead of Buhari who they said got a total of 16,741,430 votes.
“The Petitioners state that Smart Card Readers deployed by the 1st Respondent, in addition to accreditation, equally transmitted electronically the results of voting from polling units directly to the server of the 1st Respondent. The Presiding Officers of the 1st Respondent directly inputted the results from the polling units at the end of voting and transmitted directly to the server, in addition to manually taking the Form EC8As to the Wards for collation.
Buhari victory was widely celebrated after his 2015 victory, but the celebratory mood quickly diminished in the first few years of economic stagnation , sources from Abuja told The Eye Of Media.Com via phone.
”Rising unemployment and poverty has made the lives of average Nigerians such a misery that many talented individuals have no outlet to express their talent. This has been the case with successive governments in Nigeria, but the least Nigerians deserve is a fair election with the leader appointed by the people. You can’t have a leader who openly condemns corruption, holding unto power through corrupt means”
Buhari is one of the few Nigerian presidents who has no skeletons of corruption in his closet, but many say his rise to and grip of power has been sustained by corruption.