#GoFundMe: Going by reactions, Atiku may raise more than needed for tribunal
Reactions of millions of Nigerians over the floating of a free funding platform, #GoFundMe, inaugurated Wednesday by the famous #EndSARS campaign convener, Segun Awosanya to raise fund for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar to finance his legal challenge of the presidential results in court, have shown unprecedented interests.
“Here is the official GoFundMe link for people interested in supporting the defense of HE @atiku’s mandate in a credible Court of Law. You can donate here,” Awosanya said on Twitter on Wednesday.
Besides, at the first hearing of Atiku and PDP’s exparte application, the three-man panel of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal in Abuja, yesterday, reserved ruling on the order granting them access to inspect the electoral materials used for the February 23 poll.
The panel, led by Justice Abdul Aboki, with Justices Peter Ige and Emmanuel Agim as members, in a pre-hearing session of the tribunal entertained the applicants’ argument for about 45 minutes, rose and granted strategic aspects of the application including unlimited access to all electoral materials for examination.
On the denial specifically for forensic and scanning operations, lead counsel, Chirs Uche (SAN) said the matter will come up during the main trail.
As expected in an ex parte hearing, the respondents – President Muhammadu Buhari, the All Progressives Congress and the Independent National Electoral Commission – were absent and not represented by their lawyers.
Explaining more on the fund, Awosanya averred that the fund will be channeled to bankrolling legal expenses coming from all legal fireworks from the presidential election tribunal to the highest court in the land.
Already, mammoth followers of the convener on twitter have assured their readiness to contribute their ‘Widow’s might’ to make sure that justice is served in the high profile case which kicked off Wednesday.
Already, the crowd funding account which was launched on Tuesday, 5th March has raised about $832 by 16 people out of its $100,000 target.
In the bio of the account, it is stated the PDP candidate supporters “strongly believe that there is enough evidence to discredit the process and upturn the results as announced by INEC.”
“Our Call to Action is therefore simple: to put our money where our votes went and deal a decisive blow against tyranny and rigging by donating freely to support the case against INEC and the ruling APC.”
It would be recalled that at the height of speculations on whether Atiku will challenge the presidential election, the party Tuesday, March 5, 2019, filed an application in Abuja, seeking an order compelling the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to allow it inspect materials used for the conduct of the poll.
Business Hilights gathered that in line with Electoral Act as amended, inspection of election materials precedes the filing of an election petition at the tribunal. Recall that the Appeal Court serves as the Presidential Electoral tribunal.
Atiku and PDP are seeking the court’s order to grant them go-ahead to inspect the Voters Registers, the Smart Card Reader Machines, ballot papers and other documents used nationwide in the conduct of the presidential election.
