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Council, Tanko Yunusa, told The Guardian: “We expect the tribunal to do due diligence to the petition before it. I want to emphasise that the judges should look at the substance in the case and not technicalities.
In similar vein, National Publicity Secretary of PDP, Debo Ologunagba, said the party is expecting the tribunal to consider all the facts before it in accordance with the laws, and “the facts we have produced in our petition.
“We expect the tribunal to follow the law and then consider the facts, consider the issues, consider the Electoral Act 2022 and the Constitution and take a critical look at the points we raised in our petition.”
National Secretary of Social Democratic Party (SDP), Dr. Olu Agunloye, said the party did not file any petition against the presidential election but that the party is more interested in how the judges would address the case before them because it is critical to the survival of the country.
In a telephone conversation, Agunloye said: “We expect two things from the tribunal. One is that the case before them is not a technical case but political. We, therefore, expect that the tribunal would do the best, not only in the form of justice, but in the form of what we call better stability for Nigeria.
“Nigerians are not going to file into the court but the judges are expected to know that what they come up with in this particular case may determine whether the country collapses or survives.
“The second part is we expect that the judges or the tribunal will understand that this is not a case of ‘cash and carry’, it is beyond that. And besides, the tribunal is not also expected to look in that direction.”
National President, Middle Belt Forum, Birtus Pogu, pleaded with the tribunal to ensure that the petitions before them are treated and resolved before the swearing in date of May 29.
According to him, “all these things can be trashed out by the Election Petition Tribunal and the Supreme Court before May 29. But if we allow things to go out of control, then the Doctrine of Necessity may come in and the unexpected is likely to happen in the country.”
But National Legal Adviser of All Progressives Congress (APC), Babatunde Ogala, said the expectation of the party is that the tribunal should strike out the petition for being incompetent.
According to him, “we didn’t add anything to the petition we already filed before the tribunal. We have filed our response, our reply to the petition(s), which incorporated our preliminary objections to the competent of the petition by the opposition parties. We didn’t add anything but they have seven days to respond to us and that is what we are waiting for from the respondent of the petition.
“We have also filed a notice of preliminary objections and told the tribunal to strike out the petition for being incompetent.” One of Atiku’s spokesmen, Daniel Bwala, responding to a comment by the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, on moves to disqualify Tinubu, said: “Keyamo said people are searching the Constitution from sections 1 to 320 to find a ground to disqualify Tinubu. No no no. He has been disqualified from the Electoral Act before we even reach the Constitution. By the time we reach the Constitution, it will be to convict him.”
Keyamo had said some people were searching the Constitution daily on how to disqualify Tinubu. He stressed that the ignorance displayed by those trying to disqualify Tinubu was very interesting. (Text, excluding headline: The Guardian)
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