Muhammadu Buhari, All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) Presidential candidate, has gone to the Supreme Court to challenge the judgment of the tribunal which upheld the election of President Umaru Yar’ Adua on April 21st last year.
Buhari, through his counsel, Mike Ahamba, questions the decision of the tribunal last Tuesday which ruled that he had offered no evidence to change the result of the election.
The notice of appeal filed at the weekend argued that the Justice of the Court of Appeal(which served as the tribunal) erred in law when they held that there was a burden of proof on Buhari, by virtues of section 146(i) of the Election Act 2006, to show that non-compliance affected the result of the vote when there is no such provision in the Section.
Buhari averred that Section 146(1) demands that the appropriate party shows that non-compliance does not substantially affect the result of the election, not that non-compliance affects it.
He said his complaint was that the election was invalid but that the tribunal found that he failed to establish substantial non-compliance; so, the burden of proof placed on him was inconsistent with the substance of his complaint.
Buhari maintained that the Justice misplaced the onus of proof on a fundamental issue in the petition, and that the placement of the onus on him to establish that non- compliance affected the result of the election is inconsistent with the decision of the Supreme Court in Swem VS Dzungwe (1996).
The second ground of appeal contended that the tribunal erred in law when it unanimously held that he offered no evidence capable of affecting the result of the election, consequent upon which it dismissed the petition.