APPEAL COURT ASKS INEC, APC AND BUHARI TO RESPOND TO ATIKU’S PETITION WITHIN STIPULATED DATES

The court of Appeal has given the Independent National Electoral Commission and the All Progressives Congress ( APC) till Thursday to file their responses to the election petition jointly filed by the Peoples Democratic Party and its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, challenging the outcome of the February 23 presidential election.

President Muhammadu Buhari, who is the candidate of the APC, is also to respond to the petition on or before April 16, 2019.

Atiku and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), on March 18, 2019 filed the petition before the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal, challenging the declaration of Buhari and the APC as the winner of the just concluded presidential election.

The petitioners claimed that contrary to INEC’s declaration, the PDP candidate, Atiku Abubakar, was the valid winner of the election.

INEC, Buhari and APC are the first to the third respondents to the petition.

None of the three had filed responses to the petition as they regarded Atiku’s action as childish.

Paragraph 10(2) of the Electoral Act, 2010 provides for a period of not more than 21 days within which a respondent must reply to an election petition from the date of being served with it.

The said Paragraph 10(2) provides, “The  non-filing of a memorandum  of  appearance shall not bar the  respondent from defending  the  election petition if the respondent files  his reply to the election petition in the Registry within a reasonable  time, but, in any case, not later than  twenty-one  (21) days from the receipt of the election petition.”

The petitioners served the petition on INEC and APC on March 22, but was unable to serve same on Buhari until they were able to obtain a March 27 order of the Court of Appeal in Abuja permitting them to serve the President through substituted means.

“The registry of an election petitions tribunal opens on Saturdays and Sundays; so, there is no excuse for anyone not to meet the time limit.”

A legal practitioner, Mr Tunde Falola, said, “A respondent, who does not file his reply to a petition within time has no defence to the petition and he would be deemed to have accepted those allegations contained in the petition.”