On Tuesday, four candidates for the presidency presented separate petitions to the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal in Abuja in order to contest Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress as the winner of the presidential election on February 25.
The petitioners, who want Tinubu’s election as president-elect to be overturned as Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party; Peter Obi of Work Party; Chichi Ojei of Action Alliance and Allied People’s Movement, Solomon Okangbuan.
With 6,984,520 votes, People’s Democratic Party candidate Atiku Abubakar came in second. while Obi received 6,101,533 votes to finish third.
INEC, Tinubu, his running mate Shettima Kashim, and the APC were the respondents to the petition by Obi and LP, which was marked CA/PEPC/03/2023.
Obi added that Tinubu “was not duly elected by majority of the lawful votes cast at the time of the election” in the petition.
Obi said that 11 states had been rigged, and he promised to show this in the declaration of results based on the uploaded results.
The petition stated, “The petitioners shall show that the votes recorded for the second respondent (Tinubu) did not comply with the legitimate process for the computation of the result and disfavored the petitioners in the following states: The federation’s other states include Rivers, Lagos, Taraba, Benue, Adamawa, Imo, Bauchi, Borno, Kaduna, Plateau, and others.
Obi and LP claimed that INEC broke its own rules when it announced the result, despite the fact that the Electoral Act mandates that all polling unit results be scanned, uploaded, and sent electronically at the time of announcement.
The petitioners asked the tribunal, among other things, to “determine that, at the time of the presidential election held on February 25, 2023, the second and third respondents (Tinubu and Shettima) were not qualified to contest the election.” This prayer was one of many that the petitioners offered.
That it be determined that, as a result of the second and third respondents’ failure to qualify, all of the votes cast for the second respondent in the election were cast in vain.
“That it be determined that the first petitioner (Obi) scored a majority of the lawful votes cast at the election, had at least 25% of the votes cast in each of at least two-thirds of the states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, and satisfied the constitutional requirements to be declared the winner of the presidential election on February 25, 2023” (after discountenancing the votes credited to the second respondent).
“That it be determined that the second respondent, Tinubu, was not entitled to be declared and returned as the winner of the presidential election held on February 25, 2023, having failed to score one quarter of the votes cast at the presidential election in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.”
Related News Obi responds, “I’m not who you’re talking about.” Nnamani Obi officially files a petition with the tribunal four weeks after the election. Why did the government poll record voter apathy? – Peter Obi On the other hand, the petitioners are also asking the tribunal to order that the election be canceled and that INEC be forced to hold a new election in which Tinubu, Shettima, and APC will not participate.
The petition that was submitted by lead counsel for the petitioners, Livy Ozoukwu, has not yet been given a date by the tribunal.
The petition filed by Atiku and the PDP was marked CA/PEPC/05/2023, and INEC, Tinubu, and the APC were listed as respondents.
On Tuesday, Silas Onu, a member of Atiku’s legal team, informed Channels TV that the petition had been submitted.
Basically, the appeal needs Tinubu’s triumph invalidated.
Rotimi Oyekanmi, the Chief Press Secretary for INEC, stated that the commission does not comment on cases filed by political parties when contacted for a response on Tuesday.
In addition, Festus Keyamo, the Chief Spokesman for the APC Presidential Campaign Council, made the disclosure that his boss would not provide the LP candidate with an official response because the case was in court.
“The APC PCC has no response to the petition,” Keyamo stated. The argument now officially shifts to court, at my level in the profession and for those of us who understand what it means to adhere to the rule of law.
Meanwhile, separate petitions have been filed with the court by the Action Alliance and its presidential candidate, Solomon Okangbuan, and the Allied People’s Movement and its presidential candidate, Princess Chichi Ojei.
Okangbuan and Ojei are each challenging the outcome of the presidential election in the lawsuits marked CA/PEPC/03/2023 and CA/PEPC/04/2023 on the grounds of alleged substantial noncompliance with the INEC’s guidelines and electoral laws.
The AA claimed that its candidate was disqualified, necessitating the annulment of the election.
The APM, on the other hand, asserted that sections 131(c) and 142 of the Constitution as well as section 35 of the Electoral Act 2022 prohibited Tinubu from participating in the election at the time.