Atiku, Obi failed to prove over voting -Tribunal

The Presidential Election Petition has struck out allegations of overvoting and offloading of fictitious results by Atiku Abubakar, the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party and his Labour Party ( LP) counterpart Peter Obi.

Both candidates who are challenging the declarations of the All Progressive Congress ( APC) Presidential candidate, President Bola Tinubu, as winner of the 2023 Presidential election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC),

The tribunal stated that to prove the offloading of fake results, the petitioner must produce two sets of results, the original and the fake ones.

The court ruled that the witness must be an eyewitness,

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The court noted that of the 13 witnesses, only 2 were present at their polling units, adding the allegations were mere allegations as the petitioners failed to prove their case of overvoting and struck out the allegations, which it said were “ nebulous”

The tribunal said the Petitioners failed to prove their allegations of over-voting and, therefore, struck out their petition.

Also on the arguments and counter-arguments about Section 134 (1) and (2) of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria (as amended), which stipulates that a presidential candidate must attain or score a majority of votes cast in a presidential election, where two or more candidates are involved, and at least 25% in two-third of the 36 States and Federal Capital Territory (FCT) of Nigeria to meet the constitutional requirement to be declared as duly elected as President of Nigeria.

Live update: The election tribunal

The tribunal said their interpretation is fixated on the word “ and”.

The tribunal ruled that the interpretation must be taken holistically rather than taking them in isolation.

He, therefore, declared that petitioners’ insistence on the APC candidate, Bola Tinubu, scoring 25% of the FCT, is not mandatory, adding that the “ petition is unmeritorious.”