The presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, and the party have prayed the Election Tribunal to nullify the process that produced the President-elect, Bola Tinubu.
Obi and the Labour Party, in a petition dated March 20 marked CA/PEPC/03/2023, alleged that Tinubu was not the rightful winner of the February 25 presidential election, noting that the election should be nullified.
Respondents in the petition are Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Tinubu, the Vice President-elect, Sen. Shettima Kashim, and the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, had declared Tinubu winner of the February 25 presidential election after securing majority of votes cast at the poll.
According to Yakubu, Tinubu met the constitutional benchmark of scoring 25 per cent in two thirds of 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory according to INEC.
Not satisfied with the outcome of the election, the petitioners approached the tribunal to seek redress.
They said based on the valid votes cast at the just concluded presidential election, the 1st petitioner scored the highest number of votes cast at the election.
And not less than one quarter of the votes cast at the election in each of at least two-thirds of all the states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, and ought to be declared and returned as the winner of the presidential election.
Obi, therefore, sought an order directing the 1st respondent to issue the Certificate of Return to the 1st petitioner as the duly elected President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
That it be determined that the Certificate of Return wrongly issued to the 2nd respondent by the 1st respondent is null and void and be set aside.
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He also sought an order that the presidential election conducted on February 25, 2023, is void on the ground that the election was not conducted substantially in accordance with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022 and Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, as amended.
Obi equally sought an order further cancelling the pesidential election and mandating INEC to conduct fresh presidential poll.
The petitioners alleged glitches in the electronic system installed and managed by INEC were a ploy invented to credit unlawful votes to Tinubu.
They also sought an order to wipe out the clear advantage which inured to the petitioners following the lawful exercise of voting rights by the electorate.
The petitioners said they “shall rely on the results obtained from the iREV portal as well as other copies of the Forms EC8A to establish that substantial votes were unlawfully credited to the 2nd respondent.”
They avered that they shall equally rely on numerous press statements made by and credited to INEC leadership in an attempt to explain the process which led to the crediting of massive “unlawful” votes to Tinubu.
The petitioners averred that at the trial, they will rely on all the investigation, forensic, expert, and other reports and spread sheets referred to/pleaded in the petition, which are hereby incorporated as part of the petition.
The petitioners stated that at the trial, they shall rely on all respondent’s electoral materials and all other necessary documents used for the conduct of the 2023 presidential election.
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