Presidential Tribunal Dismisses Factional Chair’s Request to Strike out HDP’s Petition

TRACKING >Candidate of the Hope Democratic Party (HDP), Chief Ambrose Owuru, got some respite on Thursday following the dismissal of an application seeking to strike out the name of the HDP from the petition before the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) sitting in Abuja.

Chairman of the five member presidential election panel, Justice Mohammed Garba, in a ruling on Thursday dismissed the application for lacking merit.

Owuru who contested the February 23 presidential election on the platform of the HDP had challenged the emergence of President Muhammadu Buhari as winner of the presidential poll.

However, few days after the panel commenced sitting, one Poland Tapre, who claimed to be the chairman of the HDP, announced appearance for the party and informed the tribunal of the HDP’s intention to withdraw from the petition, since the 1st petitioner, Owuru, did not obtain the consent of the party before filing the petition.

However, Owuru had urged the tribunal to ignore Poland on the grounds that he was an impostor and stranger seeking to disrupt the hearing of the petitioner’s petition.

In a unanimous ruling on Thursday, the tribunal held that from the evidence before it, Owuru who was the party’s presidential candidate in the 2019 presidential election, was the chairman and leader of the HDP.

The tribunal having held that the application was unmeritorious accordingly refused and dismissed the application.

Details later…