Peter Obi asks tribunal to void Tinubu’s election

The Labour Party (LP)’s Presidential Candidate, Peter Obi has filed a case against the conduct of the 2023 Presidential election, at the Presidential Election Court (PEC), asking the court to void the pronouncement of the All Progressive Congress (APC) candidate, Bola Tinubu, as President-elect.

Obi filed the petition on Thursday, March 2nd, pursuant to section 36(1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, as amended, section 146 of the 2022 Electoral Act and Paragraphs 47(1): 54 of the First Schedule to the Electoral Act, 2022.

The case is brought against the Independent National Electoral Commission( INEC), Bola Tinubu and the All Progressive Congress (APC) as defendants

Under the 2022 Electoral Act, petitions are instituted for the purposes of challenging the validity of an election or disputing the return of a candidate.

An election petition is usually presented by a candidate in an election or a political party that took part in the elections.

Election petitions which are sui generis actions, that is to say, “they are peculiar with legal procedures and processes that are different in character from normal civil proceedings,” entail special proceedings guided by electoral law as encapsulated in the Constitution and the Electoral Act 2022.

Recall that the Labour Party (LP) Presidential candidate, Peter Obi, on Thursday, had assured millions of his teeming supporters that he will not abandon his mandate and vowed to prove to the world that he won the February 25 Presidential election.

Read also: Nigeria’s election results put disenfranchisement in the spotlight

Obi, had while addressing a World Press Conference at the Transcorp Hilton hotel, Abuja, on Thursday, assured that he will not abandon his mandate but lead in ensuring that the nation overcome the current political darkness, trying to envelop the country

Obi had accused Mahmoud Yakubu, chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC ), of violating essential provisions of the 2022 Electoral Act on the transmission of results from the polling units to the INEC viewing center,

This followed the declaration by INEC on Wednesday, pronouncing Bola Tinubu, the All Progressives Congress (APC ) Presidential candidate, as winner of the poll, with a total of 8,794,726 votes, while Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP) had 6984, 520 and Peter Obi scored 6,101,533 votes.

But Obi declared the results as a daylight robbery, and vowed to do everything legally possible to reclaim the stolen mandate.

He stated that the election was “conducted and results announced as programmed.”

He noted that the election would go down as one of the most controversially conducted in Nigeria, adding that “Nigerians have been robbed.”

Obi, while pleading with Nigerians to be calm, added that this would not be the end of the struggle, adding that “It requires that we now do the right thing.

“I’m not going away, I will lead until we overcome this darkness until day breaks.”

Obi recalled that he had vowed to govern by the rule of law, adding that he will explore all legal options to reclaim the mandate. He therefore urged Nigerians to come out and vote during the forthcoming gubernatorial election, on the 11th of March, 2023.

Speaking on possible pressures to step down, he stated that “No one will put me under pressures. When I challenge, I challenge their misconducts, rascality and irregularity. I am challenging a process that is faulty and wrong.”