Supreme Court Upholds Removal Of ‘Ambush’ Paragraphs In PDP Witness Statements
The Supreme Court today upheld the decision of the election tribunal to strike out 31 paragraphs of Atiku Abubakar and PDP’s petition challenging Bola Tinubu’s victory in the 2023 presidential election.
Delivering the judgment ,Justice Inyang Okoro ruled that the paragraphs relating to Tinubu’s qualification and other allegations were vague, generalised and lacked specificity.
On Atiku’s claim that Tinubu did not score majority of lawful votes, the court held that “the success or failure of an election is dependent on figures” which the petitioners failed to provide.
The Supreme Court also held that the five principal witnesses presented by PDP were collation agents and their evidence relating to non-compliance during the polls amounted to hearsay.
According to the judgment, the petitioners ought to have called polling unit agents to testify on the allegations of over-voting and non-compliance.
The apex court affirmed the election tribunal was right to strike out the ‘offensive paragraphs’ in the witnesses’ statements as they were intended to ambush the respondents.
In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court upheld the rulings and decisions of the election tribunal in dismissing Atiku’s petition and affirming Tinubu’s victory.
