By Akeem Oduyoye

The Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal presided over by Justice Haruna Tsammani on Wednesday thrown out some aspects of the petitions presented by the People Democratic Party’s presidential candidate in the February polls, Atiku Abubakar. ⁣
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The struck out portions include those in which the PDP claimed that Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress was unqualified to contest the last presidential election.⁣
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In the judgment on some motion by the respondents, the court held that while the petitioners claimed that Tinubu did not meet the constitutional threshold to enable him to contest the election, they failed to state what the required qualifications were. ⁣
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The tribunal also expunged some paragraphs where the petitioners accused Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State and one Friday Adejo—described as a Local Government Chairman in Kogi State—but failed to join them as parties to the petition.⁣
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It also struck out other paragraphs where it found that the petitioners made vague allegations of irregularities and malpractices.⁣
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Announcing this, Justice Stephen Adah said, “The witness statements being incompetent are, hereby, struck out and as point because of this court.⁣
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“The further consequence of that decision is that given the provision of paragraph 41 sub three of the same first schedule to the electoral act 2022, stating that there shall be no oral examination of a witness during his evidence in chief except to lead the witness to adopt his written deposition and tender in evidence or disputed documents or other exhibits referred to in this deposition.⁣
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“It follows that all the evidence including evidence in cross-examination and all documents, reports…are incompetent, and are hereby expunged from the records of this court.”⁣