The Presidential Election Tribunal sitting in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, has ruled that Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party was wrong to raise criminal allegations of intimidation, harassment and corruption against security personnel, who are not associated to their petitions, in one of the pleas filed by the Independent National Electoral Commission against the petitioners, requesting the court to strike out petitions.
The criminal court lacked the ultra vires i.e the jurisdiction to entertain criminal allegations against persons who are not before it.
Justice Garba Mohammed struck out some fragments of the petition by Atiku and the People’s Democratic Party, where the allegations are included.
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Also, the court validated the petitioner’s contention that there could be a hearing before or after elections regarding issues of qualifications, whether or not a candidate supplies false information to INEC before the election.
The court clearly stated that questions regarding a candidate’s qualification could be pre and post elections matters which could be heard in a High court or an election Tribunal