Jonathan vs Buhari: PDP closes defence today
BY IKECHUKWU NNOCHIRI
ABUJA—The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, will today conclude its defence over allegations of electoral malpractices levelled against it before the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja, by the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC.
The opposition party had in its substantive petition, alleged that the ruling party, PDP, connived with officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and rigged the April 16 general election in favour of its candidate, President Goodluck Jonathan.
Therefore, it joined INEC, its chairman, Prof Attahiru Jega, all the Resident Electoral Commissioners in the 36 states of the federation and the FCT, President Jonathan, his Vice, Namadi Sambo and the PDP, as respondents in the suit.
It is asking the tribunal which is holding its proceedings at the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal, to nullify the presidential election and order a re-run between it and the PDP, maintaining that President Jonathan failed to fulfil the requirement of section 134 (2) of the 1999 constitution.
CPC specifically challenged all the results that were garnered by the PDP in all the 17 states in the South, as well as in Sokoto, Kaduna, Plateau, Kwara, Benue, Adamawa, Nasarawa states in the North and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT.
Meanwhile, after it had conducted pre-hearing sessions on the petition, the five-man panel tribunal, headed by Justice Kumai Bayaang Akaahs, gave the petitioner 10 days to call its witnesses with a view to proving the allegations, while it equally allotted five days each to the respondents for their defence.
Consequently, the petition closed its case after it had called 45 witnesses from different parts of the country to testify that the presidential election was fraught with manifest irregularities.
Besides, both INEC and President Jonathan in separate defences urged the panel to dismiss the contention of the petition as grossly unmeritorious and incompetent.
While the electoral body produced five witnesses that testified for it, President Jonathan on his own part called 26 witnesses, including serving ministers, who in their oral evidences, insisted that his election was free, fair and credible.
Following the conclusion of their respective defences, the tribunal on September 5, ordered PDP to open its defence, a legal exercise that will terminate today.
Even though PDP had short-listed 135 witnesses to appear and testify on its behalf, however, it has so far called only six of them.
At the resumed hearing of the case, two PDP witnesses, Mr Greg Madu from Imo State and Mr Victor Udozo from Anambra State, took turns and testified that President Jonathan emerged via a credible poll.
While Madu dismissed CPC’s allegation that the presidential election in some parts of Imo State was marred by violence, Udozo, under cross-examination, said the electorate in Anambra State unanimously voted President Jonathan, regardless of their political affiliations.
He maintained that with what he observed from all the polling booths he visited on the election date, there was large turnout of voters in support of the PDP.
Immediately the second witness finished his testimony, lead counsel to the PDP, Chief J.K Gadzama, SAN, informed the court that they would be closing their defense today, even as he sought for an adjournment, a request that was accordingly granted by the tribunal.
In the meantime, going by the provisions of the Electoral Act as amended, the tribunal has 24 days to round up its sitting on the petition considering that today marks 156 days since the CPC filed its petition.
While section 134 of the Electoral Act, as amended, explicitly gave the presidential election petition tribunal, 180 days (6 months), to dispose every dispute that emanates from the conduct of a presidential poll, section 140 (1) of the same Act imbues the tribunal with powers to nullify an election if the petitioner successfully proves its case.
