The presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, yesterday filed a petition at the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) seeking the nullification of the declaration of Mr. Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress as winner of the February 25 presidential poll.
He also prayed the tribunal to declare him as the authentic winner of the presidential election poll.
In the election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced that Tinubu polled 8,794,726 votes to emerge victorious; Mr. Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) came second with 6,984,520 votes, while Obi scored 6,101,533 votes.
The LP candidate in the petition filed by his team of lawyers, including 13 senior lawyers insisted that he and not Tinubu, scored majority of lawful votes cast at the presidential poll.
In the election, Mr. Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) came second with 6,984,520 votes while Obi came third with 6,101,533 votes.
Obi’s petition marked CA/PEPC/03/2023, has INEC, Tinubu, his running mate, Shettima Kashim, and the APC as respondents.
He contended that Tinubu “was not duly elected by majority of the lawful votes cast at the time of the election.”
He claimed there was rigging in 11 states, adding that he would demonstrate this in the declaration of results based on the uploaded results.
The petition read: “The petitioners shall show that in the computation and declaration of the result of the election, based on the updated results, the votes recorded for the second respondent (Tinubu) did not comply with the legitimate process for the computation of the result and disfavoured the petitioners in the following states: Rivers, Lagos, Taraba, Benue, Adamawa, Imo, Bauchi, Borno, Kaduna, Plateau and other states of the federation.’’
Obi and LP said INEC violated its own regulations when it announced the result despite the fact that at the time of the announcement, the totality of the polling unit results had yet to be fully scanned, uploaded and transmitted electronically as required by the Electoral Act.
Among other prayers, the petitioners urged the tribunal 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.
“That it be determined that all the votes recorded for the second respondent in the election are wasted votes, owing to the non-qualification of the second and third respondents.
“That it be determined that on the basis of the remaining votes (after discountenancing the votes credited to the second respondent) the first petitioner (Obi) scored a majority of the lawful votes cast at the election and had not less than 25 per cent 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 February 25, 2023 presidential election.
“That it be determined that the second respondent (Tinubu), having failed to score one-quarter of the votes cast at the presidential election in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, was not entitled to be declared and returned as the winner of the presidential election held on February 25, 2023.’’
Alternatively, the petitioners are also asking the tribunal for an order cancelling the election and compelling INEC to conduct a fresh election in which Tinubu, Shettima and APC shall not participate.
