Election Court dismantles APM’s, LP’s petitions against Tinubu
Sopuruchi Onwuka
The much awaited verdicts of the Presidential Election Petitions Court or PEPC began today with initial discarding of two major petitions by Allied Peoples Movement (APM) and The Labour Party (LP) respectively.
In the first petition to be decided, Chairman of the Court, Justice Tsammani Haruna Tsammani, threw out the petition of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) against the All Progressives Congress’ (APC’s) Vice Presidential candidate and current Vice President, Kashim Shettima, for being incompetent.
The APM had petitioned against the process that produced Shettima as Tinubu’s running mate, saying that it was in breach of the Electoral Act which forbids double nomination as Shettima was a senatorial candidate at the time he was nominated as Tinubu’s running mate.
In ruling on the petition, Justice Tsammani held that the case against Shettima’s qualification to run as APC presidential candidate’s running mate was a pre-election matter which ought to have been filed within 14 days at the Federal High Court after the emergence of Shettima as Vice Presidential Candidate of the APC.
In throwing out the petition for lacking merit, Justice Tsammani also faulted the position of the APM in the candidate nomination process of the APC, noting that the APM could only challenge Shettima’s nomination if it could show how the nomination affected it.
The PEPC also disabled Obi’s allegation of massive vote rigging in favour of Bola Tinubu of the APC, pointing out that Obi and the Labour Party failed to list the specific polling units where the rigging took place.
In one of his petitions against Tinubu’s declaration as winner of the 2023 presidential election, Mr Peter Obi had averred that 18,000 or 11% blurred polling unit levels results were uploaded on IRev. He contended that since the blurred results formed part of the scores attributed to all the candidates, including Tinubu, it would be dubious to announce a winner under such circumstance.
But in reading the judgement on the petition on Wednesdday, Justice Bello said Obi and the Labour Party failed to identify the specific polling units from where the blurred results emanated, adding that the petitioner did not also present any sheet or forensic document to show the states listed in certain paragraphs on rigged polling units.
Justice Bello maintained that the obligation of proving the specificity of the rigging and where it took place rests on Mr Peter Obi and the Labour Party.
The Oracle Today reports that the with initial despair for the petitioners, there are strong signals that some of the aggrieved parties and sundry interests might proceed to the Supreme Court to further challenge the controversial February election in which President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressive Congress (APC) was declared winner.
More ruling were going on as this report is processed, and key decisions on the lingering petitions are expected to reached by the end of today to nail months of deliberations on lawsuits mainly from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party over irregularities by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), vote fraud in many local polling stations across the country, and allegations Tinubu was not qualified to run.
Tight security was reported within and around the court premises with security forces cordoning off access to the building with roadblocks.
The Oracle Today reports that no court has overturned a presidential election since Nigeria’s return to democracy from military rule in 1999; but the 2023 election is different for the high level of mass awareness, participation in electronic monitoring of the process, and rapid transmission of information by observers.
