Emmanuel Thomas l Thursday, July 04, 2019
ABUJA, Nigeria – Renowned constitutional lawyer, Professor Ben Nwabueze(SAN)was today the cynosure of all eyes when he appeared and led other Senior Advocates of Nigeria in defence of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) and its Presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar at the commencement of trial at the Presidential Election Tribunal in Abuja.
He stormed the tribunal on wheel chair, wheeled into the venue by Vice Presidential candidate of the PDP, Mr. Peter Obi.
Speaking on the appearance of the senior lawyer for the party, Obi described Nwabueze as a patriot for coming to the defence of PDP despite his health challenges.
“Peter Obi @PeterObi: It was reassuring that notwithstanding his age and health challenges, Prof Ben Nwabueze (SAN), patriot and foremost constitutional lawyer, led our legal team at the commencement of trial at the Presidential Election Petition, today”, he said.
The PDP and its Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar are seeking to upturn the result of the 2019 presidential election at the tribunal. The Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) declared President Muhammadu Buhari as winner of the presidential election. According to INEC, President Muhammadu Buhari scored 15, 191, 847 votes while Atiku scored 11, 262, 987 votes in the election but the PDP claimed its candidate Atiku Abubakar won the election.
The party based its plea on results it alleged was on INEC server. According to the PDP, the results published on INEC server showed Atiku Abubakar defeated President Muhammadu Buhari by a margin of over 1, 615, 302 votes. Specifically, Atiku said in his petition before the Presidential Election Tribunal that he polled a total of 18,356,732 votes to defeat Buhari who scored 16,741,430 votes based on results on INEC server.
The tribunal has refused his request to inspect the contentious server.
