[dropcap]P[/dropcap]resident Muhammadu Buhari says Wednesday’s verdict of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal affirming his victory at the 2019 polls, is victory for Nigerians who trooped out to overwhelmingly elect him for a second term.
The President’s reaction to the judgement is contained in a statement by his Special Adviser, Femi Adesina, issued in Abuja on Wednesday.
“Good conscience fears no evil report. I was unperturbed all along, because I knew Nigerians freely gave us the mandate. We are now vindicated,” he said. While dedicating the victory to God, and to Nigerians, President Buhari also commended the judiciary for “dispensing justice without fear or favour”.
He extended a hand of fellowship to those who were dissatisfied by the outcome of the election, and had gone to court, noting that it was within their democratic rights to do so.
He however said that with the pronouncement of the judiciary, “it is time for the country to move forward as one cohesive body, putting behind us, all bickering and potential distractions over an election in which Nigerians spoke clearly and resoundingly”.

[dropcap]D[/dropcap]elta State Governor, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta on Tuesday, September 10, 2019 announced that 2015 suspended civil service employment in the state would be revisited within the next one month.

He made the disclosure in Asaba when the new Executive Council of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in the state visited him. The governor said that he had directed the Head of Service and the Civil Service Commission to look into the case of the suspended employment and identify the Deltans among the persons.

According to him, Head of Service and the Civil Service Commission will do a need assessment for the state and within the next one month, those qualified would be recalled.

He said that his administration would employ more workers to fill vacant positions in the service, and recalled that the government recently employed no fewer than 1, 000 teachers.

“We need more than the 1, 000 teachers that we have engaged and when we look at their entitlements, we will engage more.

“We are also engaging 100 Extension Officers to give a boost to our drive in the agriculture sector which will ensure food sufficiency, and generate employment for our people.

“From the employment of the teachers, you will observe that quality persons were engaged to teach our children.

“The very best were taken because, in our employment drive, we are not only looking at the qualified persons but, those who have the knowledge to teach our children in the critical areas,” Okowa said.

He congratulated the new NLC executive in the state, assuring that his administration would continue to partner organized labour to ensure a progressive state. He said, “I am ready to stay in partnership with the NLC, because you believe in partnership for results rather than agitation for results.

“There is a lot to be done in our state and we want to reassure you that we will continue to stay committed to providing infrastructure.

“Workers should continue to do those things they have been doing for us to have a peaceful state and the enabling environment for investment to thrive.

“Most times when you hear labour leaders speak, it is not on a friendly note, but in our state the organized labour unions are very very cooperative, they offer genuine advice on how to stabilize the government.

“I have always said that for us to succeed, the political class must work with the civil service; that is why we ensure prompt payment of their salaries and their promotion as and at when due.

“We thank God and earnestly look forward to the inauguration of the Central Secretariat Complex in the early months of 2020, because it will help us with coordination and shared services.”

He said that his government was committed to the payment of the national minimum wage, adding that as “it concerns the contributory pension scheme, many states are shying away from it.

“But, it is a very good scheme that came with a lot of challenges; as a state we spend about N1.3 billion monthly on pensions whereas, there are states that have less than N1.3 billion as their total wage bill monthly.’’

Earlier, Chairman of NLC in the state, Comrade Goodluck Ofobruku, had said that the visit was to thank the governor for his support to organized labour and workers in the state.

“Our dear Governor, you have made workers to become landlords in Delta State; you have provided conducive work environment and you have approved the training and retraining of staff.

“Your commitment to the payment of minimum wage once the circular is released; your employment of 1, 000 teachers, payment of salaries and promotion of civil servants as and at when due, among others, deserve commendation,” he said.

[dropcap]A[/dropcap]nxiety had begun to rise as the Presidential Tribunal sitting Abuja will any moment from now deliver judgement in the petition filed by the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP), Atiku Abubakar and his party against in the February 23 general election challenging the victory of President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The electoral body had on February 27, declared Buhari and his party as the winner of the election, having polled a total of 15,191,847 votes to defeat his closest rival, Atiku of the PDP who it said polled a total of 11,262,978 votes.  It was based on this that Atiku and his party had approached the Tribunal to challenge election on ground that the result released by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was not the true position of the election.

It was the contention of the petitioners that they won the election, based on the results transmitted to the INEC server electronically. It was also their contention that Buhari did not possess the relevant academic qualification to contest the election. Joined as Respondents are the INEC, Buhari and the APC.

Atiku and his party in their petition marked CA/PEPC/002/2019 and filed on March 18 submitted that the APC candidate, Buhari was not validly elected by the majority of votes cast across the country in the election. The petitioner also contended that the presidential election on which the INEC declared Buhari as the winner was invalid as it was marred by corruption.

In addition, the petitioner alleged in the petition submitted that the election of Buhari is invalid, having not complied with the provisions of the Electoral Act. Also the petitioner submitted that Buhari was not at the time of the election qualified to contest, having submitted a fake academic qualification to the electoral body and the petitioner in his reliefs is therefore praying the tribunal to declare that Buhari is not duly elected and ought not to have been returned and that the election is null and void.

He also prayed the that he (Atiku) be declared as the validly elected winner of the election having polled the highest number of votes as provided by the Electoral Act, even as he is praying for an order of the tribunal to direct INEC to issue a certificate of return to him, having been validly elected by the majority of votes cast on February 23. In the alternative, the petitioner is praying the tribunal to nullify the February 23 election and order a fresh presidential election.

Opposing the petition, Buhari and the APC challenged the competence of the petitions.

Their main contention was that Atiku did not have locus-standi to even participate in the Presidential poll.  Buhari had, however, described Atiku as a serial loser, boasting that he had always defeated him in every electoral contest that they took part in.

President Buhari insisted that electorated always chose him ahead of Atiku in both inter-party or intra-party contests, using the 2014 presidential primaries of the APC, as an instance.

In addition, Buhari, queried the powers of the tribunal to nullify his election victory at the poll, contending that the joint petition Atiku and the PDP entered against him was incompetent as it was based on conjectures.

He insisted that the reliefs the petitioners are seeking from the tribunal were “vague, nebulous and lacking in specificity”. They equally argued that most of the issues and grounds of the petition were not only “mutually exclusive”, but also outside the jurisdiction of the tribunal.

He further contended that by virtue of section 31(5) and (6) of the Electoral Act, 2010, as amended, only the Federal High Court or High Court of a state has jurisdiction to adjudicate on some the issues, among which included the allegation that he was bereft of the requisite educational qualification.

The APC, in its own objection, alleged that Atiku is an alien, insisting that he is not a Nigerian by birth and therefore was not qualified to contest the February 23 presidential poll. APC submitted that Atiku is a Cameroonian, and that he was born on November 25, 1946 in Jada, Adamawa, in Northern Cameroon and is therefore a citizen of Cameroon and not a Nigerian by birth.

However, at the end of the hearing, the Petitioners called 62 witnesses, APC and INEC did not call any witness, while Buhari called on seven witnesses.  Part of the evidence of the Petitioners Witnesses were that INEC used electronic server to transmit results,  that Buhari did not possess any academic qualification and that the election was marred with irregularities.

In his final written address, the Petitioners had strongly alleged that Buhari used fundamental falsehood to secure clearance from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to participate in the poll.

He insisted that Buhari, as candidate of the APC lied on oath in his form CF001 presented to INEC before standing for the presidential election.

In the final address presented on his behalf by his lead counsel, Dr Levy Uzuokwu (SAN), Atiku drew the attention of the Tribunal to a portion of his INEC form where he claimed to have three different certificates; comprising Primary School leaving certificate, WAEC certificate and Officers Cadet certificate.

The petitioners said it was shocking and surprising that: “No Provisional certificate, no certified true copy of the certificates, no photocopy of certificates and in fact no electronic version of any of the certificates was presented by Buhari throughout the hearing of the petition to dispute the claim of the petitioners.

“More worrisome is the fact that Buhari’s own witness Major General Paul Tafa (rtd), who joined the Nigerian Army with him in 1962, told the tribunal that they were never asked to submit their certificates to the Nigerian Army Board as claimed by Buhari in his form CF001.

“At any rate the Secretary of the Nigerian Army Board, Olatunde Olaleye had in a statement clarified that Buhari had no single certificate in his personal file with the Nigerian Army.”

Atiku therefore urged the tribunal to nullify the participation of Buhari in the election on the grounds that Buhari lied on oath to deceive Nigerians and to secure unlawful qualification for the election.

The former Vice President informed the tribunal that the claim of Buhari that he can read and write in English language as enough qualification for him was of no moment because ordinary artisans on the streets of Nigeria can also do so, adding that a grave allegation bordering on certificate was not addressed by Buhari as required by law.

The PDP presidential candidate also faulted the claim of INEC that it has no central server, adding that server is a storage facility including computer where database of registered voters, number of permanent voter card and election results amongst others are stored for references.

He said the claim by INEC that it has no device like server to store information, “is laughable, tragic and a story for the dogs”.

Atiku’s lawyer in his final address debunked the claim of INEC that collation and transmission of results electronically was prohibited by law in Nigeria.

He asserted that by Electoral Amendment Act of March 26, 2015, the use of electronics became law and was officially gazetted for the country, adding that section 9 of the Act which made provision for electronic collation of results replaced section 52 which hitherto prohibited the use of electronics and which INEC erroneously held that electronic results transmission is prohibited.

He therefore urged the tribunal to uphold the petition and nullify the participation of Buhari in the election on the grounds that he was not qualified to have stood for the election, in addition to malpractices that prompted his declaration as winner of the election.

However, INEC, represented by Yunus Usman (SAN), urged the tribunal to dismiss the petition with substantial cost because the electoral body conducted the election in total compliance with the Nigerian constitution and Electoral Act 2010 and urged the tribunal to dismiss the petition.

Usman insisted that INEC did not transmit election results electronically because doing so is prohibited by law and that the Commission did not call any witness because there was no need to do so.

In his defence, Buhari through his counsel Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN) argued that Atiku’s petition was liable to be dismissed because it is lacking in evidence, merit and substance and that the petition is I’ll advised and signified nothing.

Olanipekun cited section 131 of the Constitution which stipulated a minimum of secondary school attendance to qualify for election in Nigeria, adding that Buhari cannot go beyond that and that he does not need to tender or attached certificate before he can get qualification for any election.

He submitted that there was nothing in law to persuade the tribunal to nullify the February 23 presidential election as pleaded by Atiku and urged the tribunal to dismiss the petition with substantial cost.

The APC represented by Prince Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), in his own submission said the petition lacked quality evidence that could warrant the nullification of the election as pleaded by the petitioners and urged the tribunal to throw out the petition as long as its hand can do with huge cost.

However the Tribunal Chairman, Justice Garba Umar after taken submissions from all parties announced that judgment in the petition has been reserved and that the date for its delivery would be communicated to parties.