Atiku Gets Permission to Serve Election Petition on Buhari Through APC

The Court of Appeal in Abuja has granted permission to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) 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 on Wednesday in a “pre-hearing session” of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, granted the request contained in the petitioners’ ex parte application.

It stated that Buhari, who is the second respondent to the petition, be served through any senior official or an officer of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the party’s secretariat in Abuja.

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