The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, has asked the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal to uphold the declaration of the Independent National Electoral Commission that he won 21 states in the February 25 presidential election.
Atiku made the request in his final address filed at the Presidential Election Petitions Court on July 20.
The address was in support of his joint petition with the PDP seeking the nullification of INEC’s declaration of Bola Tinubu as the winner of the poll.
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In the final address settled by his lead counsel, Chris Uche SAN, Atiku said INEC’s assertion that he won in 21 states was neither disputed, retracted, debunked nor claimed to be an error through the proceedings of the tribunal so far.
INEC had, in its response to Atiku’s petition, asserted that the PDP’s presidential candidate won 21 states of the federation in the last presidential poll.
The 21 states listed by INEC as having been won by Atiku and the PDP are Adamawa, Akwa Ibom. Bauchi. Bavelsa. Borno, Delta, Ekiti, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Katsina. Kebbi. Kogi. Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Osun, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe, and Zamfara.
The former Vice President said since INEC, which on its averments, claimed that he won those states and did not rebut the assertion throughout the proceedings, the tribunal should proceed to uphold the declaration.
The final written address read in part, “Very importantly, the 1st Respondent (INEC) who conducted the election made an open admission in paragraph 18 of its Reply to the Petition, where it unequivocally stated thus:
“The 1st Respondent further avers that in compliance with extant laws and regulations, it diligently discharged its duties when it collated the 1st Petitioner’s (Atiku) scores at the election which aggregates to 6,984,520 winning only 21 states to wit: Adamawa, Akwa Ibom. Bauchi. Bavelsa. Borno, Delta, Ekiti, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Osun, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe, and Zamfara.”
“Indeed, as admitted by the 1st Respondent (INEC), the 1st Petitioner (Atiku) won in these 21 states. It is important to note that throughout the trial, the 1st Respondent (INEC) neither refuted nor countermanded this critical averment nor denied it.
“As a result of the non-use of the collation by electronic transmission, the 1st Respondent (INEC) later altered the admitted result of 21 states for the 1st Petitioner to 12 States,” the final address said.
Atiku, however, prayed the tribunal to uphold the assertion of INEC in the process and declare him the winner of the February 25 presidential election.
