The proclamation of Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the next president has been contested before the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal by both Atiku Abubakar, the PDP’s presidential candidate, and Mr. Peter Obi, the LP’s candidate.
The presidential election held on February 25 was proclaimed to have been won by Tinubu, the APC’s standard bearer.
Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) received 6,984,520 votes, Obi received 6,101,533, and Tinubu, the candidate for the All Progressives Congress (APC), received 8,794,726. According to INEC, Tinubu was proclaimed the victor of the presidential election conducted on February 25.
Silas Joseph Onu, a member of the Atiku Legal Team, verified the submission on Tuesday night.
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This comes just after Tinubu’s position as the winner of the presidential election on February 25, 2023, was challenged by the Labour Party (LP) and its candidate, Mr. Peter Obi, in an identical suit before the electoral petitions tribunal in Abuja.
The first through fourth respondents on Atiku’s petition, with the filing number CA/PEPC/03/2023, are INEC, Tinubu, Senator Kashim Shettima, and the APC.
By a majority of the valid votes cast in the election, the petitioners are asking the tribunal to rule that Tinubu was not legitimately elected. They are requesting a court order for INEC to take back the certificate of return given to the APC candidate and issue a new one to Obi.
While Obi and the LP are the petitioners, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Tinubu, Shettima Kashim, the vice president-elect, and the APC are respondents.
In the petition, Obi through his lawyer Livy Ozoukwu submitted that Tinubu “at the time of the (presidential) election was not qualified to contest the election”
Therefore, the petitioners are requesting that the tribunal rule that all of the votes cast for Tinubu in the election “were wasted votes, owing to the non-qualification” of the president-elect and Shettima.
The petitioner requested “that it be determined that the second respondent (Tinubu) was not entitled to be declared and returned as the winner of the presidential election held on February 25, 2023, having failed to receive one-quarter of the votes cast at the presidential election in the federal capital territory, Abuja.
The petitioners have also urged the tribunal to issue “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,” according to their request.
