The Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) in Abuja has been urged by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to dismiss the petition against the emergence of Bola Tinubu as president-elect by Obi and Labour Party.
The petition, filed by Peter Obi and the Labour Party (LP), is pursuing an annulment of the victory of Tinubu and Shettima in the presidential election.
Obi and LP, the 1st and 2nd petitioners, following the announcement of the presidential election results, sued the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Tinubu, Sen. Kashim Shettima, and APC as 1st to 4th respondents respectively.
In its notice preliminary objection marked: CA/PEPC/03/2023 and filed by Thomas Ojo, a member of the party’s legal team led by Lateef Fagbemi, SAN on Monday, the APC urged the court to reject the petition.
Atiku Abubakar and PDP are also challenging the result of the poll in different petitions.
In the appeal marked: CA/PEPC/03/2023 filed by Obi and LP’s lead counsel, Livy Ozoukwu, they insisted that Tinubu “was not duly elected by a majority of the lawful votes cast at the time of the election.”
They also claim that there was rigging in 11 states, which they would demonstrate in the declaration if results were based on the uploaded results from the IREV.
Obi and LP are insisting that INEC dishonored its rules by declaring the result notwithstanding the fact that at the time of the announcement, the entirety of the polling unit results were not yet scanned, uploaded, and transmitted electronically as requisite by the Electoral Act.
The petitioners, amongst others, pleaded with the tribunal to “determine that, at the time of the presidential election held on February 25, 2023, the 2nd and 3rd respondents (Tinubu and Shettima) were not qualified to contest the election.
“That it be determined that all the votes recorded for the 2nd respondent in the election are wasted votes, owing to the non-qualification of the 2nd and 3rd respondents.
“To determine that on the basis of the remaining votes Obi scored a majority of the lawful votes cast and had not less than 25 percent of the votes cast in each of at least two-thirds of the states of the federation and the FCT and satisfied the constitutional requirements to be declared the winner.
“That it be determined that the 2nd respondent (Tinubu), having failed to score one-quarter of the votes cast at the presidential election in the FCT was not entitled to be declared and returned as the winner of the presidential election held on Feb. 25.”
APCs Submission
On the other hand, the APC wants the court to dismiss the suit on the basis that Obi, lacked the requisite locus standi to establish the petition because he wasn’t an LP member for about 30 days to the party’s presidential primary to be authentically sponsored by the party.
It stated: “The 1st petitioner (Obi) was a member of PDP until May 24, 2022.
“1st petitioner was screened as a presidential aspirant of the PDP in April 2022.
“The 1st petitioner participated and was cleared to contest the presidential election while being a member of the PDP.
“1st petitioner purportedly resigned his membership of PDP on May 24, 2022, to purportedly join the 2nd petitioner (Labour Party) on May 27, 2022.
“2nd petitioner conducted its presidential primary on May 30, 2022, which purportedly produced 1st petitioner as its candidate, which time contravened Section 77(3) of the Electoral Act for him to contest the primary election as a member of the 2nd petitioner.”
The APC further contended that by the obligatory provisions of Section 77 (1) (2) and (3) of the Electoral Act 2022, a political party shall uphold a register and shall make such accessible to INEC not later than 30 days before the date fixed for the party primaries, congresses and convention.
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It specified that all the PDP’s presidential candidates were screened on April 29, 2022, an exercise in which Obi participated and was cleared to contest while being a member of the party.
They argued that the petition was inept since Obi’s name could not have been in the register of LP made accessible to INEC as at the time he joined the party.
The APC further disputed that the petition was inappropriately established having failed to join Atiku Abubakar and PDP who were essential parties to be affected by the reliefs sought.
“By Paragraph 17 of the petition, the petitioners, on their own, stated that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar came second in the presidential election with 6,984,520 votes as against the petitioners who came third with 6,101,533 votes.
“At Paragraph 102 (iii) of the petition, the petitioners urged the tribunal to determine that 1st petitioner scored the majority of lawful votes without joining Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in the petition.
“For the tribunal to grant prayer (iii) of the petitioners, the tribunal must have set aside the scores and election of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
“Alhaji Atiku Abubakar must be heard before his votes can be discountenanced by the tribunal,” it said.
The party said the petition and the identified paragraphs contravened the compulsory provisions of Paragraph 4(1) (D) of the 1st Schedule to the Electoral Act, 2022.
According to APC, Paragraphs 60 — 77 of the petition are non-specific, vague, and/or nebulous and thereby incompetent contrary to Paragraph 4(1) (d) of the 1st Schedule to the Electoral Act, 2022.
It pointed out that accusations of non-compliance must be made definitely and substantiated on a polling unit basis but none was detailed or provided in any of the paragraphs of the petition.
“Paragraphs 59-60 of the petition disclose no identity or particulars of scores and polling units supplied in 18,088 units mentioned therein,” it added.
The APC, thus, disputed that the tribunal didn’t have the mandatory prerogative to entertain pre-election grievances entrenched in the petition as currently constituted, among other arguments.
The party prayed the tribunal to dismiss the petition with considerable cost as the same was lacking any merit and was created on triviality.