Peter Obi officially files petition at Presidential Elections Tribunal

Candidate of the Labour Party (LP) at February 25, 2023 Presidential Elections, Peter Obi has officially filed a petition at the Presidential Elections Tribunal (PET) in Abuja, nearly a month after conclusion of the exercise.

Obi is challenging the decision by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to declare candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, as winner of the disputed election, as well as, President-elect, Monday, February 27.

Obi’s petition follows the conclusion of the General Elections, last Saturday, which ended with the governorship and state Assembly polls.

The LP candidate had openly claimed he will challenge the process and result of the Presidential elections where he finished in third place, according to INEC.

Chief Spokesperson for the Labour Party- Presidential Campaign Council (LP- PCC), Dr Yunusa Tanko, who confirmed the development in a terse statement, Tuesday morning, added that the process by Obi and the party to reclaim their mandate has started.

“It is official the Labor Party Presidential candidate Peter Obi has filed his petition to the presidential elections tribunal in Abuja. The process of reclaiming the people’s mandate has started,” Yunusa said.

The LP-PCC spokesperson did not, however, disclosed Obi’s specific applications in the petition before the PET.

Sources, however, disclosed that Obi’s prayers before the PET include that Obi’s prayers form part of the reliefs being sought in the petition filed with his party at the court’s secretariat.

Obi’s legal team, as petitioners, prayed the court to hold that “at the time of the presidential election held on 25 February 2023,” Messrs Tinubu and Shettima “were not qualified to contest the election. “

The petitioners equally want the court to hold that the 2nd respondent (Tinubu) having failed to score one-quarter (25%) of the votes cast at the Presidential Election in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, was not entitled to be declared and returned as the winner of the presidential election held on 25 February 2023.

Also, the petitioner is seeking “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.”

PET cancels the February 25 Presidential elections and order the conduct of a new one.

Obi also asked the tribunal to determine that all the votes recorded for Tinubu in the election are wasted votes, owing to the non-qualification of the president-elect and Mr Shettima, as he argued that Tinubu at the time of the election was not qualified to contest the election.

According to Obi, the APC owing to forfeiture agreement with the United States government over hard drug-related offences is not eligible to be on the ballot.

It would be recalled that before nor, Obi and his legal team, had approached the Court of Appeal headquarters in Abuja, which would also serve as the PET, seeking to obtain leave to access sensitive electoral materials of the INEC deployed for use at the February 25 polls, including the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines before its reconfiguration.

In its ruling, the appellant court while granting Obi his sought leave, also authorised the Labour Party candidate to electronically scan and photocopy of the ballot papers used for the conduct of the Presidential elections.

The court also granted Obi Forensic inspection of BVAS used for the February 25 presidential election.

However, While the court granted Obi’s requests, it also granted INEC the leave to proceed with the reconfiguration of its BVAS machines, but with an order to back up data sought by the Labour Party legal team.

With the official submission of petition before the PET , legal fireworks are expected to commence in earnest, as Obi has assembled a 12-man legal team of Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) headed by Labour Party/Peter Obi Legal Team, Dr. Livy Uzoukwu.

The President-elect and candidate of the APC, Tinibu is also said to have assembled a legal team of 45 SANs to defend his victory, as he is expected to be listed as a respondent.

Meanwhile, another petition is expected from the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) , Atiku Abubakar, who finished as first runners-up in the February 25 election.

Both Obi and Atiku had severally called the February 25 Presidential election as ‘the worst in the history of Nigeria.’

Their position is succinctly shared by some international election observer missions and civil society groups which monitored the exercise.

Only the candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), who also condemned the conduct of the February 25 election, has opted out of seeking redress at the Tribunal, as its leader Rabiu Kwankwaso said the party is taking into cognizance the costs involved.

APC claimed 12 states, with overall majority, the PDP also won 12 states, while the LP clinched 11 states,  plus the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), just as the NNPP placed fourth in the overall polls, winning only in one state of Kano.