Dr. Livy Uzoukwu has said the presidential candidate of the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) in the just concluded election, Alhaji Atiku
Abubakar has all the facts to prosecute his case at the tribunal and
emerge victorious.
Dr. Livy Uzoukwu (SAN) |
Uzoukwu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and Lead Counsel of the
Atiku/Obi legal team, disclosed this in an interview on Monday after
leading other lawyers to file petition on behalf of Alhaji Abubakar at
the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal in Abuja.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had on February
27, declared President Buhari, the flag-bearer of the All Progressives
Congress (APC), winner of the presidential election.
Buhari polled a total of 15,191,847 votes while Atiku Abubakar got 11,262,978.
However, Abubakar and his party, the PDP, were dissatisfied with the
conduct of the election and the eventual declaration of Buhari as winner
and moved to seek legal redress.
In a bid to meet up with the 21 days stipulated by section 134 of the
Electoral Act, 2010, Dr. Uzoukwu, head of the legal team, led other
lawyers to submit a petition on behalf of his client on Monday.
The petition which was duly signed by Alhaji Abubakar himself, has
the PDP as co-petitioner while INEC, APC and President Buhari were
joined as respondents.
Dr. Uzoukwu expressed optimism that his client would emerge
victorious at the tribunal, saying he was convinced that PDP won the
presidential election in the first place.
“I believe we have sufficient facts to move the court to appreciate our case and grant us our reliefs.
“We are ready and prepared to prove our case because it all depends on proofs and we are ready to prove our case.
“We have filed the petition, which is most fundamental, with some documents”, he said.
Though he admitted the team was currently having challenges accessing
documents from INEC, he said that would not deter them from continuing
with the suit.
“We may be having some challenges accessing documents from INEC,
notwithstanding, we have filed the petition and with time, INEC shall be
made to obey the orders of the court of appeal and grant us access to
electoral documents.
“That we have filed petition does not mean we can not make use of those documents when we eventually secure them from INEC.
“Some members of the team were in INEC three times last week, they
were in INEC yesterday but they asked them to come
today, that they will provide them with some
documents.
“I do hope that INEC will keep to its words and do the needful,
because they have no option as far as the matter is concerned. Because
we are talking about the compliance with an order of the court”, he
added.
On the question of moral qualification posed on the Chairperson of
the Tribunal, Justice Zainab Adamu Bulkachuwa, whose husband is a
Senator-elect under the APC, Dr. Uzoukwu said his team would wait until
the matter begins at the tribunal.
He said, “I don’t want to express any opinion in that regard now, but
until the matter is ready to go on, because as we speak, I do not have
the facts and I don’t want to speculate”.
He said that to successfully prosecute the case at the tribunal, Alhaji
Abubakar and the PDP have assembled about 20 SANs and 400 witnesses.
The lawyers are praying the tribunal that their client, Alhaji Atiku
Abubakar be returned “as person who won majority of lawful votes cast at
the election”.
In an event that the main prayer does not scale through, the lawyers
also pushed for an alternative prayer, “that the election be set aside
and for the court to order a rerun”.
But according to Uzoukwu, “the alternative prayer can only come to play if the court does not agree with us in the main prayer.
“But I believe we have substantial facts to prove our case, to prove
our entitlement to the main relief. I’m convinced beyond any doubt that
Alhaji Atiku Abubakar won the election”.
NAN
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