The Labour Party‘s (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has petitioned the presidential election tribunal to challenge Bola Tinubu’s electoral victory as president-elect.
Obi filed his petition on Tuesday at the Abuja Court of Appeal, which also serves as the presidential election petition tribunal.
Obi’s lawsuit
The petitioners are Obi and the LP, while the respondents are the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Tinubu, Shettima Kashim, the vice president-elect, and the APC.
Obi, through his lawyer Livy Ozoukwu, claimed in the petition that Tinubu “was not qualified to contest the election” at the time of the (presidential) election.
He further argued that the president-elect “was not duly elected by majority of the lawful votes cast at the time of the election”.
As a result, the petitioners are asking the tribunal to rule that all of Tinubu’s votes in the election were “wasted votes” due to the president-and elect’s Shettima’s non-qualification.
“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 federal capital territory, Abuja was not entitled to be declared and returned as the winner of the presidential election held on 25 February 2023,” the petitioner said.
“That it be determined that on the basis of the remaining votes (after discountenancing the votes credited to the 2nd respondent) the 1st petitioner scored a majority of the lawful votes cast at the election and had not less than 25% of the votes cast in each of 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.”
Obi wants the tribunal to issue an order directing INEC to issue him a certificate of return as Nigeria’s duly elected president.
However, in the alternative, the petitioners have asked the tribunal to make “an order cancelling the election and compelling the 1st respondent (INEC) to conduct a fresh election at which the 2nd respondent (Tinubu), 3rd respondent (Shettima) and 4th respondent (APC) shall not participate”.
Other candidates file electoral suit
Similarly, the Action Alliance and the Allied Peoples Movement have filed separate petitions to challenge the presidential election results.
While the Action Alliance and its presidential candidate, Solomon Okanigbuan, filed a petition marked CA/PEPC/01/2023, the Allied Peoples’ Movement filed a petition marked CA/PEPC/04/2023.
Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, has petitioned the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal to challenge the declaration of All Progressives Congress (APC) President-elect Bola Tinubu.
Silas Joseph Onu, a member of Atiku’s Legal Team, confirmed the filing on Tuesday evening.
The petition’s first to fourth respondents are INEC, Tinubu, his running mate, Senator Kashim Shettima, and the APC.
Election results
BizWatch Nigeria recalls that Tinubu, the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, was declared the winner of the February 25 presidential election.
Tinubu received 8,794,726 votes, while Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) received 6,984,520 votes and Obi received 6,101,533.
