http://www.newsportng.com.ng The legal team of the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, has filed a number of grounds why the Presidential Election Petition Court should nullify the declaration of the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu, as president-elect by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
News-Port Nigeria as at the time of filing this reports learned that the court has acknowledged Obi’s petition challenging the outcome the election on Tuesday.
In the certified true copy of the petition, Peter Obi mentioned INEC, Tinubu, Senator Kashim and All Progressives Congress as the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th respondents, respectively.
On ground one, the petitioner alleged that Tinubu was not qualified to contest the election because contrary to the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022, his running mate Kashim Shettima was a senatorial candidate for the Borno Central Constituency at the time the APC held its primary election in July 2022.
The LP lawyers said Shettima “knowingly allowed himself to be nominated as the Vice Presidential candidate to Tinubu on the platform of the APC and became the new candidate for the office of the Vice President on that date (July 14, 2022).”
They argue that Shettima signed the INEC Senatorial Election Notice of Withdrawal on July 15 after he had accepted the VP role on July 14.
“The petitioners shall hereby plead and shall at the trial rely on: I) Affidavit and Personal Particulars (Form EC9) submitted by Shettima for Borno Central Senatorial Constituency sworn to on 14 June 2022 and received by the 1st Respondent on 17 June 2022,” it said.
On Ground 2, Obi’s legal team alleged that the election of Tinubu was invalid by reason of corrupt practices or non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022.
Obi’s lawyers accused INEC of non-compliance with relevant laws, adding that pursuant to the powers conferred on the electoral umpire by the 1999 constitution and the Electoral Act, 2022, it issued the “Regulations and Guidelines for the conduct of Elections 2022” and the “Manual for Election Officials 2023” but did not abide by it during the conduct of the presidential election.
The legal team of Peter Obi maintained that the election cannot stand because INEC made the deployment of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System machine mandatory for the accreditation of voters and immediate uploading of results but failed to do so on election day, contrary to laws and regulations.
On ground 3, Obi claimed that Tinubu was not duly elected by majority of the lawful votes cast during the presidential election.
His lawyers stated that they will prove from polling unit results and electoral materials that their client who from the “correct results” of the election obtained, scored the highest number of lawful votes cast in the election and met the constitutional requirements to be president.
Besides arguing that Tinubu did not win by majority votes cast, the petitioners urged the court to also hold that by the provisions of the 1999 constitution, one has to get 25 percent votes from the Federal Capital Territory as well.
“The petitioners hereby specifically plead and rely on the result of the presidential election declared/announced for the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, by the Independent National Electoral Commission,” the petition partly reads.
They urged the Court to declare the election of Tinubu invalid seeking the following prayers:
“1) That it be determined that at the time of the presidential election held on February 25, 2023, Tinubu and Shettima were not qualified to contest the election.
“That it be determined that all the votes recorded for Tinubu (2nd Respondent) in the election are wasted votes owing to the non-qualification/disqualification of Tinubu and Shettima.
“2) That it be determined that 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 25th February , 2023.
“In the alternative to 2 above: an order cancelling the election and compelling INEC to conduct a fresh election at which Tinubu, Shettima and APC shall not participate.
“In the alternative to 1,2,3 above, I) that it may be determined that Tinubu was not duly elected by majority of the lawful votes cast in the election for the office of the president and therefore the declaration and return of the 2nd Respondent as the winner of the Presidential Election’ are unlawful, unconstitutional and of no effect whatsoever.” Peter Obi
Credit: The Whistler Newspaper