The Presidential Election Petition Tribunal has directed the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM), Mr. Aminchi Habu to serve his petition on President Muhammadu Buhari through his party, the All Progressives Congress, (APC). Habu is challenging the declaration of Buhari as the winner of the Feb. 23 presidential election on the grounds that the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) excluded the name of his party from the ballot paper. The petition has the president, INEC and the APC as respondents.
Justice Abdul Aboki, who headed the three-man panel of justices of the Court of Appeal of the Tribunal made the order allowing substituted service in a ruling on an ex parte application brought by the petitioners. Counsel to the petitioners, Aliyu Lemu said the ex parte application arose due to his inability to effect personal service of the petition and other processes on the president because of security and protocol surrounding his office.
Habu and his party want the tribunal to, among other prayers, declare the victory of Buhari and the APC at the Feb. 23 presidential election null and void. He said this was based on the grounds that the name of his party and logo were unlawfully omitted from the ballot papers by INEC thereby denying him the opportunity of contesting in the election. He claimed that he and his party had spent a lot of money on campaigns and they felt cheated by INEC. He prayed the court to declare that he was validly nominated by his party but unlawfully excluded by INEC from the election into the office of president.
In his statement on oath, Habu said that he purchased the presidential form of PDM at the rate of N5 million after which he visited the 36 states of the federation to seek the support of party members. He said after he emerged winner of the primaries, PDM forwarded his name to INEC, adding that INEC without any lawful cause, wrongfully excluded his name, his party and logo from the ballot paper. He said they were also excluded from all other electoral materials and documents used for the Feb. 23 presidential election. He claimed that by unlawfully and wrongfully excluding them, INEC caused immeasurable losses in resources and electoral fortunes.
Justice Aboki, in his ruling, said that the panel had carefully considered the ex parte application and had resolved that it would be in the interest of justice if the application was granted. He consequently ordered that the petition and other processes be served on Buhari through the office of the National Legal Adviser of the APC at its National Headquarters, 40 Blantyre Street, Off Adetokunbo Ademola Street, Wuse II, Abuja.
So far, four political parties have so far filed petitions challenging the outcome of the Feb. 23 presidential election. They are: The Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) and its candidate, Atiku Abubakar, Hope Democratic Party (HDP) and its presidential candidate, Mr Ambrose Owuru; Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM) and its presidential candidate, Aminchi Habu and the Coalition for Change (C4C) and its presidential candidate, Jeff Ojinka. (NAN)
It is worth-recalling that another ex parte application had been filed by the Hope Democratic Party (HDP) and its presidential candidate, Chief Ambrose Albert Owuru, challenging the legality of the Feb 23 election. The petition filed March 7, 2019 is praying the tribunal to nullify the purported election of February 23 and the subsequent declaration of Buhari as winner on the ground that INEC has no power under any law to postpone the Feb 16 date to Feb 23 because the conditions precedent for the postponement of the elections were not observed.
The petitioners who claimed to have been excluded from participating in the February 23 poll averred that the election was invalid by reason of non-compliance with the provision of the Electoral Act stipulating the condition under which election can be lawfully postponed. Among others, the main grouse of the petitioners was that they were validly nominated for the 2019 general elections but were unlawfully excluded from the said elections by INEC by delisting their names and party logo from the ballot papers.
The ex-parte motion filed by Yusuf Ibrahim, an Abuja-based lawyer is seeking an order of the court to serve President Buhari by pasting their petition at the Aso Villa Presidential Office, the National Secretariat of the APC and at the Tribunal notice board. The ex-parte application followed an affidavit of non-service deposed to by one Abubakar Mohammed, Chief Bailiff of the Appeal Court where he claimed that security officials at the reception of the Aso Presidential Villa denied him access to enter and effect service on President Muhammadu Buhari on the ground that there is no directive from the President’s office to that effect.
