766 petitions filed at 77 election tribunals

A total of 766 petitions have been filed by politicians who were dissatisfied with the outcome of the last general elections.

The Nation learnt yesterday that the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa, in exercise of her constitutional authorities, has set up a total of 77 election tribunals to hear and determine the petitions.

According to the Deputy Chief Registrar, Election Petitions Tribunal, Court of Appeal, Mrs. Rabi Abdulazeez, a breakdown of the petitions revealed that four were filed by four political parties and their candidates in respect of the presidential election.

They include the one, marked: CA/PEPC/002/2019, filed on March 18 by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate in the February 23 election, Atiku Abubakar.

The Hope Democratic Party (HDP) and Ambrose Owuru, who claimed to be the party’s presidential candidate, filed the second petition, marked: CA/PEPC/001/2019. It was filed on March 7.

Read also: A’Ibom APC seeks relocation of election tribunals to Abuja

The third, marked: CA/PEPC/003/2019 was filed by the Coalition for Change (C4C) and Geff Ojinika, who claimed to be the party’s presidential candidate.

The fourth petition, marked: CA/PEPC/004/2019, was filed on March 19 this year by the People’s Democratic Movement (PDM) and Pastor Aminchi Habu, listed as the party’s presidential candidate.

The figures made available by the Court of Appeal’s spokesperson, Mrs. Sa’adatu Musa Kachalla, revelead that a total of 54 petitions have been filed for the governorship elections, while 205 petitions have so far been filed in relation to the senatorial elections.

For the House of Representatives, 101 petitions have been filed across the country.

The Court of Appeal had, on April 4, 2019, put the number of petitions filed at 736, implying that additional 30 had been filed between April 4 and April 16, 2019, according to Mrs. Kachalla.