The Presidential Election Petition Tribunal has fixed August 21 as the date for final arguments in the petition filed by the Peoples Democratic Party and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar challenging the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari.

The development followed Thursday’s decision by President Buhari and his All Progressives Congress (APC) who are the last two respondents to the petition to close their case. 

The other respondent, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) which conducted the February 23, 2019 general elections had earlier closed its case without calling any witness .

 Buhari’s legal team which called seven witnesses between Tuesday and Wednesday closed its case without calling an additional witness on Thursday . The APC’s team had earlier said that it would not present any witnesses.

The five-man panel of the tribunal led by Justice Mohammed Garba subsequently asked the three respondents to file and serve on the petitioners their final written addresses within three days starting from Monday, August 5.

The tribunal also gave the petitioners seven days from the time they are served to file and serve on the respondents their final written addresses, giving the respondents two days to, if necessary file their final addresses in reply to the petitioners’ addresses.

Before fixing August 21 for the adoption of the final addresses by the lawyers representing the parties in the case, Justice Garba announced that the closing date for the submission of addresses would be  August 16.