Mr Peter Obi, candidate of the Labour Party, LP, insisted on Thursday that he won the presidential election held on February 25, and presented proof copies of election results from six states of the federation to back up his claim.
Obi presented the results from 115 Local Government Areas, LGAs, in evidence before the Presidential Election Petition Court, PEPC, in Abuja.
Though Prof. Awa Kalu, SAN led Obi’s legal team, the election results, which were included in Forms EC8A, were presented from the Bar by one of his lawyers, Chief Emeka Opoko, SAN.
The first batch of election results presented to the court by the LP candidate who finished third in the presidential election came from 15 of Rivers State’s 22 LGAs.
Despite the opposition of all respondents, Justice Haruna Tsammani’s five-member panel admitted the Rivers state findings and labeled them Exhibits PD 1 to PD 15.
Obi and the LP both presented results from 23 LGAs in Benue state, which were allowed as evidence and labeled as Exhibits PC 1 to PC 23, while results from 18 LGAs in Cross River State were added as Exhibits PD1 – PD 18.
Obi tendered Forms EC8A from 23 LGAs in Niger state, which were admitted as evidence as Exhibits PE-1 to PE 23, as well as Forms PF 1 – PF 20 from 20 LGAs in Osun state.
The latest set of results presented to the court by the petitioners were from 16 LGAs in Ekiti and were labeled Exhibits PG 1 to PG 16.
Following that, the Justice Tsammani-led panel postponed further proceedings in the case until Friday.
In their final written address, all respondents said that they would explain why they challenged the acceptability of the presidential election results presented by Obi and the LP.
The suit names the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, President Bola Tinubu, Vice President Kashim Shettima, and the All Progressives Congress, APC as first through fourth respondents.
Obi specifically claims in the joint petition he filed with the LP that President Tinubu was not the valid winner of the election.
In the lawsuit named CA/PEPC/03/2023, the petitioners also claimed that President Tinubu was not qualified to run for president.
According to the petitioners, Tinubu’s running mate, Shettima, was still the APC’s nominated candidate for the Borno Central Senatorial race when he became the Vice Presidential candidate.
The petitioners also questioned Tinubu’s eligibility to run for president, claiming that he had previously been indicted and fined $460,000.00 by the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, in Case No: 93C 4483, for an offense involving dishonesty and drug trafficking.
The petitioners said that INEC operated in violation of its own Regulations and Guidelines, rendering the election illegitimate due to corrupt activities and non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022.
The Petitioners argued that the electoral body was mandated by its Regulations to prescribe and deploy technological devices for the accreditation, verification, continuation, and authentication of voters and their particulars during the conduct of the presidential election.
They are thus asking the court to declare, among other things, that all votes cast for Tinubu and the APC were squandered due to his non-qualification/disqualification.
“That it is determined that the 1st Petitioner (Obi) scored a majority of the lawful votes cast at the election and had not less than 25% of the votes cast in at least 2/3 of the States of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, and satisfied the constitutional requirements to be declared the winner of the 25th February 2023 presidential election on the basis of the remaining votes (after discountenancing the votes credited to the 2nd Respondent),”
“That it be determined that the 2nd Respondent was not entitled to be declared and returned as the winner of the presidential election held on February 25th, 2023 since he did not receive one-quarter of the votes cast.”
In the alternative, the petitioners seek an order canceling the election and compelling INEC to hold a new election in which Tinubu, Shettima, and the APC, identified as the second, third, and fourth respondents, respectively, would not participate.
They requested the court to rule that because Tinubu was not officially elected by a majority of the lawfully cast votes in the election, his return as the winner of the presidential election was unlawful unconstitutional, and of no effect.
In an alternative motion, the petitioners want the court to declare the presidential election illegal since it was not conducted largely in conformity with the terms of the Electoral Act 2022 and the 1999 Constitution, as amended.
Similarly, they applied for an order “cancelling the presidential election held on February 25, 2023 and mandating the 1st Respondent to conduct a fresh election for President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
Meanwhile, Obi and his Vice Presidential candidate, Baba Ahmed Datti, were both in court on Thursday to observe the proceedings.
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