The Supreme Court has fixed Wednesday, October 30, 2019, for hearing of the appeal by Atiku Abubakar against the judgement of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal.
The Tribunal had last month declared that Muhammadu Buhari was eminently qualified to contest the presidential election as against the claim of Atiku and his party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
It also overruled claims that the presidential election was flawed.
But the petitioners, now appellants before the Supreme Court, filed a 66 ground of appeal, itemising the different errors of law in the September 9 judgement delivered by Justice Mohammed Garba and unanimously agreed to by the four other members of the panel.
The first ground of appeal has to do with the documents relating to the educational qualifications of Buhari as tendered by him and admitted by the court as exhibits.
Citing the relevant provisions of the Electoral Act, the appellants contended that the documents were neither pleaded by Buhari nor frontloaded as legally required and as such could not have been deemed as properly admitted by the court.
On this ground, Atiku and the PDP argue that the court of appeal erred in law when it relied on the “overall interest of justice” to admit the documents and accord it probative value.
In the brief of argument in reply to the appellants, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, contended that the Justice Garba election court was right in holding that the provisions of the Electoral Act on educational qualification cannot supersede that of section 131 of the Nigerian Constitution as amended.
As at last week, the parties had concluded the filing and exchange of briefs, clearing the way for the Supreme Court to issue a hearing notice for Wednesday
For now, the identity of the seven justices who will sit on the appeal remains unknown.
