Four presidential candidates have approached the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal in Abuja with separate petitions. Specifically, they seek the nullification of the declaration of Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress as winner of the February 25 presidential poll.
The petitioners are Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party. Peter Obi of the Labour Party. Solomon Okangbuan of the Action Alliance.
Chichi Ojei of the Allied People’s Movement. Further, Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party came in second with 6,984,520 votes, while Obi came in third with 6,101,533 votes.
Accordingly, the petition by Obi and LP, marked CA/PEPC/03/2023, had INEC, Tinubu, his running mate, Shettima Kashim, and the APC as respondents. Obi contended that Tinubu was not duly elected by the majority of the lawful votes cast at the time of the election. Furthermore, he claimed there was rigging in 11 states, adding that he would demonstrate this in the declaration of results based on the uploaded results.
Obi’s Petition
The petition read, “The petitioners shall show that in the computation and declaration of the result of the election, based on the updated results.” Also, the votes recorded for the second respondent (Tinubu) did not comply with the legitimate process for the computation of the result. This 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 at the time it did. Additionally, 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. Moreover, 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.”
Equally important Tinubu, having failed to score one-quarter of the votes cast at the presidential election in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. Therefore, he 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 canceling the election. Then compel INEC to conduct a fresh election in which Tinubu, Shettima, and the APC shall not participate.
The tribunal has yet to fix a date for the hearing of the petition filed by the petitioners’ lead counsel, Livy Ozoukwu.
Atiku’s Petition
Atiku and PDP’s petition was marked CA/PEPC/05/2023, with INEC, Tinubu, and APC listed as respondents. Essentially, the petition wants Tinubu’s victory nullified. A member of Atiku’s legal team, Silas Onu, confirmed the filing of the petition to Channels TV on Tuesday.