President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has formally asked the Supreme Court to dismiss the appeal filed by the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) Atiku Abubakar for being vague and lacking in merit.
Tinubu told the apex court that Atiku’s petition that was dismissed by the lower court was a mere blockbuster with thrilling suspense and hide-and-seek.
This is contained in President Tinubu’s response to Atiku’s appeal filed at the Supreme Court wherein Atiku and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are challenging the September 6 judgment of the Presidential Election Petition Court.
Part of the grounds canvassed for dismissal of Atiku’s appeal is that it is irritating, vague, unwarranted, and has no known focus or destination.
Tinubu, in his brief of arguments filed by Wole Olanipekun (SAN) on his behalf, specifically claimed the case of the former Vice President has no legs to stand upon and as well have no wings to fly in the direction being sought by the PDP presidential candidate.
President Tinubu said he defeated Atiku and PDP in virtually all the states of the federation, prompting the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC to declare him winner after the lawful collations of the election results in the presence of agents of the appellant.
The President further faulted the entire allegations of malpractices, noncompliance with electoral laws, and non-qualifications raised against him by Atiku, stating that the lower court did not find merits in any of the allegations, hence, they were dismissed.
He also challenged the competence of Atiku’s petition, insisting that what the PDP presidential candidate dressed as statements of facts were mere hearsays with no probate values.
Tinubu asserted that while Atiku claimed to have won the majority of the lawful votes cast at the election, he never gave the figure he scored at the election.
He claimed that what Atiku termed an expert report, was a mere worthless paper having been produced outside the period of the time stipulated by law, making it inadmissible by any court of law.
Tinubu drew the attention of the Supreme Court to the admission of Atiku’s witnesses that the election was free and fair except for the inability of INEC to transmit the results electronically as earlier promised.
The President insisted that the non-transmission of election results electronically did not violate any law because the decision to use the electronic system was just a promise by the electoral body.
He said that the electoral body was at liberty to adopt any mode of transmission of election results and it adopted manual transmission.
Meanwhile, Tinubu’s reply is completely silent on the fresh evidence claimed to have been procured by Atiku from the Chicago State University.
At the time of this report, the Supreme Court has not fixed a date for the hearing of the appeal marked SC/CS/935/2023.