The court of appeal in Abuja on Friday granted Peter Obi, the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party permission to serve his petition to Bola Ahmed Tinibu, the president-elect.
The appeal court gave the order while ruling in an application by Obi in his petition challenging the victory of Tinubu who was declared the President-Elect by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) after the February 25th poll.
In an ex-parte application filed by Ikechukwu Ezechukwu (SAN), Peter Obi’s counsel, Obi urged the appeal court to grant him leave to serve Tinubu the petition through substituted means.
In the ex-parte application, Mr. Obi noted that the bailiff of the Court of Appeal made “unsuccessful attempts to serve the petition personally on Tinubu and Shettima.
According to Ezechukwu, heightened security protection around the president-elect and vice president-elect has made it difficult to serve the petition on them. Thus, they are asking for leave to serve the court filings through “substituted means” on Tinubu and Shettima via the office of the legal adviser of the APC.
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Court’s Decision
Ruling on the application, a three-member panel of the Court led by Haruna Tsammani, granted Obi’s request and ordered Obi to serve Tinubu and Shettima through substituted means.
The court gave a directive that the petition be served on Tinubu and Shettima “by delivering or pasting the petition No: CA/PEPC/03/2023 and all other processes filed in the petition at either the office of the National Legal Adviser of the” APC or…with any other officer of the APC “at its National Secretariat at No.40 Blantyre Street, Off Ademola Adetokunbo Crescent, Wuse 2, Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.”