Chrys
The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party,
PDP, in the last election, Alhaji Abubakar Atiku, on Friday told the
Presidential Election Petition Court that the Independent National Electoral
Commission, INEC, is a meddlesome interloper in its defence of Bola Ahmed
Tinubu on the qualifications for the election.
Atiku specifically accused the electoral body of being a
busy body and fishing in another person’s troubled water.
INEC, through its counsel, Mr Kemi Pinhero SAN, at Friday’s
proceedings, had moved a motion on notice praying the court to strike out some
of the allegations against Tinubu by Atiku in his petition.
The electoral body pleaded with the court to strike out 32
allegations against Tinubu by Atiku in the petition challenging his former’s
declaration as the winner of the February 25 Presidential election.
INEC said that the allegations, which formed 32 paragraphs
in the Atiku’s petition, should be discountenanced by the court for various
reasons comprising lack of jurisdiction.
But Atiku, through his lead counsel, Chief Chris Uche SAN,
filed a counter affidavit in opposition to INEC’s request and asked the court
to dismiss the electoral body’s position.
Uche argued in the counter affidavit that it was not the
duty of INEC to do the battle or argue the case of Tinubu, who is the 2nd
defendant in the petition.
Specifically, Atiku’s lead counsel insisted that INEC ought
to be neutral but somersaulted by turning itself into a busybody and meddlesome
interloper by taking up the defence of Tinubu against the provisions of the
law.
He, therefore, asked the court to dismiss INEC’s motion for
being a gross abuse of court process, lacking in merit and grossly incompetent.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Court, Justice Haruna Simon
Tsammani, has fixed the ruling till the date of judgment in the substantive
petition.
