The Presidential Election Tribunal on Wednesday dismissed another petition challenging the victory of President Muhammadu Buhari at the 2019 presidential election.
The petitioner, People’s Democratic Movement (PDM) and its presidential candidate, Aminchi Habu were challenging Buhari’s second term election at the February 23, 2019 poll.
PDM’s lawyer, Aliyu Lemu applied for the withdrawal of the petition to the five-man tribunal led by Justice Mohammed Garba.
The respondents, consisting of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Buhari and the All Progressives Congress did not oppose the application.
The tribunal in a unanimous ruling subsequently dismissed the petition.
The dismissal by the tribunal came over a month after the tribunal dismissed a petition by the Coalition for Change against Buhari, INEC and the APC on Monday, June 10.
The petitioner, Coalition for Change, requested withdrawal of the case through its lawyer, Obed Agwu, at the resumed hearing before the presidential election tribunal on Monday.
The withdrawal was not opposed by lawyers of President Buhari, the All Progressives Congress and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Justice Mohammed Garba-led panel of the tribunal subsequently dismissed the petition.
The dismissal of the petition means there are only two petitions including that of the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar against Buhari’s victory at the poll.
Buhari was declared the winner of the presidential election February 27 and was inaugurated for a second tenure as Nigeria president at the Eagle Square, Abuja on May 29.
INEC chairman Prof Mahmood Yakubu in February said Buhari polled 15, 191, 847 votes while Abubakar, a former Nigerian vice president between 1999 and 2007, got 11, 262, 978 votes.
But Abubakar and the PDP claimed the election was ‘massively rigged’ to hand Buhari a second term in office.
