The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has lined up 27 witnesses to defend the petition by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar against the election of Bola Tinubu in the February 25 polls.

The party told the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) sitting at the Court of Appeal in Abuja, to dismiss the petition filed by the PDP challenging the election of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu in the February 25, 2023 presidential poll.

The proposed wintesses who are all members of the party are expected to testify that the election that produced Tinubu as the President-elect, was conducted in accordance with the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022 and other extant laws and that there was no such non-compliance substantial enough to affect the result of the election.

APC is further contending that the declaration of its presidential candidate as the winner of the election is proper and valid.

That further to the above, the election validly took place in the polling units where results were declared after sorting of ballots, counting of votes, recording of same in the prescribed forms which were signed by the presiding officers and the party agents, were present, including that of the Petitioners and copies issued as prescribed by the Electoral Act, 2022.

In its notice of preliminary objection filed by its lead counsel, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, marked CA PEPC/A/05/2023, APC

urged the tribunal to dismiss the petition for lacking in merit.

Beyond that, the party argued that the tribunal has no jurisdiction to adjudicate on the petitioners’ allegation predicated on ground (D) in paragraph 16 of the petition and the related paragraph 146 which lacks necessary facts or particulars as required by paragraph 4 (1)(d) of the rules of procedure for election petitions ( 1st Schedule to the electoral Act 2022.

That the 1st Respondent (INEC) utilized the technological device (BVAS) deployed for the electronic transmission of the polling units results of the election, as far as practicable, to complement manual transfer of the primary election results in duly completed result forms, and the accreditation data.

There was no programmed failure of the election as the Petitioners’ duly earned figures were credited to them in the various States they won. Rather, it was the Petitioners that programmed themselves into failure at the election as they failed to manage their home and fortunes properly thereby enabling a split in the party by which the vice presidential candidate of the Petitioners during the 2019 presidential election decamped in 2022 to pick the Labour Party presidential ticket which development affected the Petitioners’ fortunes in the South-Eastern States of Abia, Enugu, Ebonyi, Anambra, Imo and Lagos States where the Petitioners used to have a good measure of impressive outcomes in the past.

“Respondent shall further contend that all the allegations of the Petitioners concerning the BVAS were mere concoctions and there is no basis for any presiding officer to cancel the elections in all the polling units, which results, were collated pursuant to Section 47(3) of the Electoral Act.

The 2nd Respondent was duly elected by a majority of the lawful votes cast at the presidential election held on 25th February, 2023 and scored the highest number of votes as well as one quarter of lawful votes at the election in each of at least two – thirds of all the states in the Federation. (Daily Sun)