2019 election petitions across Nigeria increase to 766

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The Court Of Appeal on Tuesday said the number of petitions challenging various results of the 2019 general elections has risen to 766.

The number of petitions was initially 736 as of April 4.

In a statement made available to PREMIUM TIMES, the Deputy Chief Registrar, Election Petitions Tribunal, Court of Appeal, Rabi Abdulazeez, said the number of petitions filed by politicians and their parties had risen to 766 as of April 16.

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Mrs Abdulazeez added that 77 election petitions tribunals had been set up by the President of the Court of Appeal, Zainab Bulkachuwa, to hear the matters.

The data also showed that the number of presidential election petitions remained four, same as it was on April 4.

The number of House of Representatives’ election disputes also remained 101. That of the senatorial election petition increased by two – from 205 to 207.

The breakdown of the petitions filed so far as released by the Court of Appeal on Tuesday is as follows: House of Representatives election, 101; Senate, 207; governorship, 54; state Houses of Assembly, 402; and presidential, 4.

The four presidential election petitions were filed to challenge the victory of President Muhammadu Buhari and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), in the April 23 poll.

One of such petitions marked CA/PEPC/002/2019 was filed on March 18 by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Atiku Abubakar.

Another of the petitions was filed by the Hope Democratic Party and its National Chairman and presidential candidate, Ambrose Owuru, on March 7.

The other petition with number CA/PEPC/004/2019 filed on March 19, was by Aminchi Habu and his party, the Peoples Democratic Movement.

The fourth petition was filed by Geff Ojinika and the Coalition for Change, who both contended that “the election was vitiated by substantial non-compliance with mandatory statutory provisions which irregularity substantially affected the election such that the first respondent (Mr Buhari) was not entitled to be returned as the winner of the presidential election.”

The petitioners all joined INEC, Mr Buhari and the APC as respondents.

But the Coalition for Change and Mr Ojinika added Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to their list of respondents.