The presidential candidate of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), General Muhammadu Buhari, on Monday told the presidential election petition tribunal that former President Olusegun Obasanjo imported 80,000 rifles to rig the April 21 elections in favour of President Umaru Musa Yar�Adua.
This is coming at a time the tribunal has granted more time to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to file its response to the petition by Buhari.
Responding to a motion opposing the application for the invitation of Obasanjo to testify in the petition, counsel to Buhari, Chief Mike Ahamba (SAN), alleged that the former president imported 80, 000 rifles for the purpose of rigging the April election and therefore needed to appear before the tribunal.
He told the tribunal that Obasanjo brought the police and the military unlawfully to intimidate voters in the last election. He said Section 308 does not cover the president in matters that has to do with election.
His words: �What makes a party desirable or necessary in any case is the allegation made against him. Allegations were made against him (Obasanjo) that he participated in the conduct of the election.
We have proved in our application that he participated in the conduct of the election.
�Under the 1999 constitution, nobody can bring out soldiers or police except the Commander-in-Chief. He brought soldiers out unlawfully to rig election for his party (the PDP).
�Once it is an election petition matter, Section 308 does not apply. There is no way the tribunal can determine this petition without looking at what the police and soldiers did. We pleaded that they (police and soldiers) were specifically brought out to do what they did. We have pictures and publications to prove all this.
�Obasanjo bought 80, 000 rifles for the purpose of the election. He told Nigerians that the election was going to be a do or die affair.�
Buhari had filed an application asking the tribunal to cause the appearance of Obasanjo to explain the role he played in allegedly influencing the result of the presidential election in favour of Yar�Adua.
In a swift reaction, Obasanjo brought a motion asking the tribunal to strike out his name from Buhari�s petition. Counsel to Obasanjo, Ade Okeaya-Inneh, while moving the motion, told the tribunal that Obasanjo cannot be joined as a respondent in the petition because he was not the person that conducted the election.
He argued that the time Obasanjo deployed the military and the police as security agents during the election, he was covered by the immunity clause in Section 308 of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria.
He said: �You have to look at the allegations properly before you can decide whether to join Obasanjo as a party in this petition. He was not the one that conducted the election and therefore should not be joined as party. Section 308 of the 1999 constitution gives him immunity from being prosecuted while in office. All the acts he was alleged to have committed were done when he was in office as the president.�