The 2019 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, is a serial loser, says President Muhammadu Buhari.
Buhari stated this in a preliminary objection he filed to challenge the competence of a petition that Atiku lodged against his re-election on February 23, 2019.
The President, who boasted that he had always defeated the PDP in every electoral contest that both of them took part in maintained that electorates always chose him ahead of Atiku, in both inter-party or intra-party contests, using the 2014 presidential primaries the All Progressives Congr ess, APC, as an instance.
In the process he (Mr. Buhari) filed before the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja, reads thus;
“The respondent further avers that at every previous instance, whether at intra-party or inter-party contests, where he and the 1st petitioner had vied, he has always been the preference of the electorate and/or delegates.
“In particular, at the primary election conducted by the 3rd respondent (APC) in 2014, to pick its presidential candidate for the 2015 election, the 1st petitioner and respondent, amongst others, were the candidates; and while the respondent polled 3,430 votes, 1st petitioner came a distant third with 954 votes”.
President Buhari, further queried the powers of the tribunal to nullify his election victory at the poll, contending that the joint petition Atiku and the PDP entered against him was incompetent as it was based on conjectures.
Insisting that reliefs the petitioners are seeking from the tribunal were “vague, nebulous and lacking in specificity”, argued that most of the issues and grounds of the petition were not only “mutually exclusive”, but also outside the jurisdiction of the tribunal.
He contended that by virtue of section 31(5) and (6) of the Electoral Act, 2010, as amended, only the Federal High Court or High Court of a State has jurisdiction to adjudicate on some the issues, among which included the allegation that he was bereft of the requisite educational qualification.
Buhari told the tribunal that contrary to Atiku’s allegation that he submitted false academic qualifications in the Form CF001 he used to secure clearance from the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, he said he was at the time of the election, “eminently qualified to contest the election, having not only the minimum qualification of reading up to secondary school level, but rose to the peak of his career as a General in the Nigerian Army with cognate experience and training.
“All information in the affidavit submitted by the respondent for the purpose of his election to the office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is true and correct, to the best of his information and knowledge”, he added.
Consequently, he maintained that all paragraphs of the petition relating to or touching on his alleged non possession of requisite educational qualification, “are liable to be struck out”.
