Appeal Court grants PDP, Atiku permission to serve petition on Buhari through APC

Ade Adesomoju, Abuja

The Court of Appeal in Abuja on Wednesday granted permission to the Peoples Democratic Party and its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, to serve their petition challenging the outcome of the February 23, 2019 election, on President Muhammadu Buhari through substituted means.

A three-man bench which sat in a “pre-hearing session” of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, granted the request contained in the petitioners’ ex parte application that Buhari, who is the second respondent to the petition, be served through any senior official or an officer of the APC at the party’s secretariat in Abuja.

Granting the ex parte application, Justice Abdu Aboki, who led the panel and delivered the lead ruling, said “it is in the interest of justice” to grant the prayers in the petitioners’ application.

The petitioners’ lead counsel, Chief Chris Uche (SAN), had earlier moved the application.

The petitioners had on March 18, 2019, filed their case to challenge the Independent National Electoral Commission’s declaration of Buhari and his party, the APC, as the winner of the election.

The INEC, Buhari and the APC are the first to the third respondents respectively.