In their final submissions before the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC), President Muhammadu Buhari and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) said that Atiku Abubakar and the Peoples Democratic Party made no effort to deny anything his country of birth.
Buhari’s lawyer, Wole Olanipekun (SAN), accompanied by Alex Izinyon (SAN) and others made the final submission in the petition by Atiku, PDP on behalf of Buhari, while Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) led the team of lawyers that spoke for the APC on Wednesday.
Olanipekun said the petitioners failed in all ramification to render any reasonable evidence to support their claims, while urging the court to dismiss the petition with substantial cost.
He said PDP, Atiku had claimed the existence of a server, but failed to identify it and show the court where it is located.
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The counsel to the APC, Fagbemi argued that all issues raised by APC about Atiku’s qualification to contest for allegedly not being a Nigerian by birth were neither challenged by Atiku nor the PDP.
“On the qualification of the 1st petitioners (Atiku). In spite of all we put before the court, they provided nothing to the contrary.
“What we need is minimal proof. Nothing was put forward in the petitioners’ written address to counter this. And, I must commend them, because they have nothing to offer.
“In that respect, the 3rd respondent has discharged the burden on that. The issue of the 1st petitioner’s non-qualification is effectively dealt with in our written address.
“To fault INEC’s position, they have the burden to show substantial non-compliance. They failed to do this. The implication, therefore, is that there was substantial compliance with the Electoral Act in the conduct of the last presidential election,” Fagbemi said.
