PEPC strikes out parts of Obi, LP’s petition for failure to prove claims

…Says Tinubu’s drug case  in the state of Illinois was a civil matter and not a criminal one.

The Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) sitting in Abuja has struck out about 17 paragraphs from the petition brought before it by Peter Obi and the Labour Party (LP), on the ground   that the petition filed by Obi  and LP in the 2023 elections was vague in certain aspects.

Obi and LP are complainants in the petition marked CA/PEPC/03/2023, challenging the election which brought Tinubu to power on May 29.

The petitioners made allegations of irregularities and said they would rely on spreadsheets, inspection reports and forensic analysis filed with the petition during the trial.

In the lead judgment read by Justice Abba Bello Mohammed, the tribunal held that the petitioners (Obi and LP) only referred to irregularities in the election but failed to specify the anomalies, the places where they occurred and those affected.

The tribunal also said the petitioners failed to state the number of votes affected and the number of people disenfranchised.

The court said although Obi and LP claimed to have scored the majority of lawful votes cast, they failed to state the number of lawful votes they scored.

“The determination of election is about figures,” the court held.

The court said the petitioners also failed to prove that their votes were suppressed by failing to specify the number of votes suppressed.

The court also struck out several paragraphs of the LP’s petition for being generic and vague, stating that the affected paragraphs failed to name the specific polling units where irregularities occurred.

Tinubu and Shettima had contended that they had the locus standi to institute their petition against Obi, on the grounds that he only joined the LP few days before the election, instead of the mandatory 30 days.

However, the court held that it is not within the rights of Tinubu and Shettima to challenge Obi’s candidacy.

“The issue of membership of a political party is an internal party affair,” the tribunal said.

The tribunal also dismissed the objection raised by the respondents contending that Obi and LP failed to join Atiku as a respondent in their petition.

The court held that Section 133 of the Electoral Act provides that the loser and winner of an election, as well as the person/body who conducted the election, are to be joined as respondents.

Justice Haruna Tsammani is delivering judgment on the main petition.

The court held that witnesses 3,4,5,6, 7,8,9,10,11 and 13 subpoenaed by LP are not witnesses of the court and that the witness statements were filed out of time.

“Out of a total of 13 witnesses called by Obi/LP, 10 of those witnesses are not countenanced by the court,” he said.

Tsammani said the 10 witness statements of oath are incompetent and cannot be admissible by the court.

The tribunal also struck out Labour party’s Peter Obi’s petition that called for the disqualification of Tinubu on the grounds of forfeiture of $460,000 over drug case.

The court said the case which was in a US district court involving Tinubu in the state of Illinois was a civil matter and not a criminal one.

It therefore added that it is a civil forfeiture without conviction.

The court also contended that the labour party had failed to show evidence that Tinubu was arraigned, tried, fined and sentenced for any criminal offence.