1st November, 2011
President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan this morning floored Gen Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), the candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, in the 16 April, 2011 presidential election, before the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja which dismissed the petition filed before it by the CPC.
In the about 2 hours unanimous judgment delivered by presiding Justice Bayang Kumas Akaas, the 5-man panel held that the CPC had woefully failed in proving the plethora of criminal allegations contained in their petition.
In a state by state critique of the allegation of massive thumb printing, inducement of electoral officers, non accreditation of voters and inflation of votes secured by President Jonathan and his deputy, Namadi Sambo, the court held that the petitioner did not prove these criminal allegations neither did it provide any shred of evidence to show that the mistake in calculation of results in Anambra state substantially affected the outcome of the result in the entire states of the federation.
According to the panel members, it is the statutory duty of the Independent National Election Commission, INEC, to defend the votes scored by candidates at the polls and held that the mere assertion by the CPC that the election and the results obtained are fraught with corrupt practices or the party’s reliance on hearsay evidence from its witnesses, cannot shift the burden to prove that the election did not comply with the laws to the electoral body.
The tribunal ruled that the onus to prove the alleged substantial non compliance rests with the petitioner.
The court also indicated that the mix up by the CPC during the adoption of witnesses deposition where the party’s National Chairman, Chief Tony Momoh and the National Secretary, Alhaji Buba Galadima mistakenly adopted the other’s witness deposition which led to the expunging of some of the depositions, was a costly one which dealt a fatal blow to CPC’s petition and held that having been so expunged, that there is nothing in the bundle of evidence tendered by the CPC to contradict the result secured by the Peoples Democratic Party’s candidates in the election.
On the allegation that President Jonathan and his party, the PDP, used the Army and Police to confer election advantage on themselves to the detriment of the CPC in Jigawa state, the court declined to look into that issue as the petitioner did not make the Nigerian Army and the Police parties in the petition.
In Enugu state where the CPC alleged that a corps member was arrested with thumb printed ballot papers by the Nigeria Police, the court held that the thumb printed ballot papers were not exhibited neither was the arresting police officer called to give evidence to counter the testimony of the corps member who was called by the respondents where she denied ever being arrested as alleged by the CPC.
The court went on to hold that the victory secured by President Goodluck Jonathan and Vice President Namadi Sambo at the poll stands and subsequently dismissed the petition as lacking in merit.
—Nnamdi Felix / Abuja