President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) are demaning that the petition filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Atiku Abubakar, its candidate, be struck out by presidential election petitions tribunal.
The respondents asked the tribunal to dismiss the petition challenging the February 23 general election on technicalities and evidential grounds.
The demands were contained in a final communique that would be presented by both Buhari and APC on August 23.
The prayers formed the spectrum of litany of other requests contained in final address made available to NAN on Sunday in Abuja.
The respondents had described Abubakar’s address that urged the tribunal to sack Buhari and affirm him president, as a “wild goose chase prayer’’.
They alleged that PDP erroneously allowed a candidate who was not a Nigerian by birth to contest the highest position, adding that such was an adventure that violated the provision of the constitution.
They averred that Abubakar was born on November 25, 1946 in Jada, a former Adamawa province of northern Cameroon before a plebiscite was conducted in 1961 that now made the enclave part of Nigeria.
They, therefore, alleged that Abubakar was not qualified to enter the contest as the constitution forbade him from canvassing for votes to become a president.
The president and his party therefore prayed the tribunal to invoke Section 131 (a) of the constitution to dismiss the petition.
Section 131 (a) of the constitution strictly holds that a person must be a citizen of Nigeria by birth to qualify to contest the office of the president.
“We pray that the tribunal will see this constitutional reason and go ahead to uphold the election of the second respondent (Buhari) forthwith,’’ they prayed.
On evidence admitted from the petitions, the two respondents said they were empty as none had substantially proven series of the allegations made against the conduct of the election.
They explained that none of the 75 witnesses and 31,287 exhibits which included 48 video clips proved any of the petitioners’ allegations.
“Moreover, the laws in Nigeria do not recognise but actually prohibit transmission of results electronically,” they submitted.
“Sections 52 and 78 of the Electoral Act 2010 have categorically addressed the issue.
“The only means of transmitting election results under the law are through Forms EC8 series. Form EC8A conveys results from Polling Units.
“It is only through these approved forms that election results can be challenged or proven and not through server, imaginary or real.’’
The parties therefore submitted that the petitioners’ allegation on the use of server by INEC to transmit results was “criminal and misguided’’.
“Atiku Abubakar and the PDP have failed in their attempt to stridently prove their petition. The petitioners failed woefully to establish by credible evidence the existence of the imaginary server belonging to INEC,’’ they claimed.
They also argued that most of the witnesses presented by the petitioners attested to the fact that they signed all the forms that contained the results of the election without coercion.
Buhari and APC therefore averred that such testimonies of truth from the petitioners’ witnesses further bestowed legitimacy on the outcome of the election.
On Buhari’s educational qualification, they said that the petitioners failed to adduce credible and reliable evidence to establish that he (Buhari) indeed forged his certificate.
“While it is appropriate to debunk such baseless, mendacious and spurious assertion, it suffices to bring to fore the unequivocal provision of the constitution,” they said.