Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi have allegedly failed to provide evidence that Bola Tinubu rigged the 2023 presidential election, according to attorneys for the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The attorneys claimed that President Tinubu’s case against Obi and the Labour Party was weak and lacking in support at the Presidential Election Petition Court.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has been drawn into the dispute between Obi and Atiku over the results of the election on February 25.
In its closing argument, the APC contended that Atiku and the PDP were not entitled to any of the reliefs requested in their petitions by a legal team led by Lateef Fagbemi (SAN).
They held that the petitioners dumped their documents in court, claiming the papers were enough to prove their allegations.
According to them, Obi, Atiku, and their respective parties failed to demonstrate or link the documents to specific allegations they raised against Tinubu’s victory.
The lawyers opined that it is not enough to merely identify exhibits without trying to demonstrate their relevance by correlating them with witnesses adopted depositions.
“On the effect of the dumping, we urge your lordships to hold that all the documents have no probative value.
“The fact that the documents were tendered by learned senior counsel for the petitioners from the bar makes the case even worse for them.
“The duty is not on the judge to retreat to his hallowed chamber and engage in a cloistered examination of the documents that were dumped before him in the open court,” APC stated.
Speaking further, they said the allegation of the petitioners that the election was rigged, was not tied to any specific polling unit in the local government areas of each of the 24 states whose elections they challenged in the petition.
The petitioners made blanket allegations and that some of the allegations were criminal in nature, they noted.
“The law requires that they should be proven through cogent, credible and reliable evidence.
“Aside from the allegation of non-qualification that the petitioners raised against the respondent, all other allegations in their petition are supposed to be set out on polling unit basis or proved beyond a reasonable doubt.”
