The Presidential Election Petition Court, PEPC, sitting in Abuja on Thursday, admitted certified copies of results of the February 25, election in six states, namely Rivers, Benue, Niger, Ekiti, Cross River, and Osun states, as hearing resumes in the petition by Presidential candidate of Labour Party, LP, Mr. Peter Obi.
Obi, in the petition with LP, are contending that President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, APC, was not the valid winner of the February 25, election.
Respondents in the petition are Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Tinubu and APC.
The Justice Haruna Tsammani-led five-member panel, admitted the results, which were tendered by Obi’s counsel, Prof. Awa Kalu, SAN.
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The six states results tendered by Obi’s counsel covered 115 local government areas.
Meanwhile, the respondents said they were all going to challenge the admissibility of the certified copies of results tendered by the petitioners.
Hearing continues on Friday.
In the petition, Obi and LP are also challenging Tinubu’s eligibility to contest the presidential election, saying that he was previously indicted and fined the sum of $460,000 by a United States District Court, in Case No: 93C 4483, for an offence involving dishonesty and drug trafficking.
They are further contending that the electoral body was in the course of the conduct of the presidential poll, mandatorily required to prescribe and deploy technological devices for the accreditation, verification, continuation and authentication of voters and their particulars as contained in its Regulations.
They are asking the tribunal to declare that all the votes recorded for Tinubu and the APC, were wasted votes owing to his non-qualification/disqualification.
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According to them, “Tinubu having failed to score one-quarter of the votes cast at the presidential election in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, he was not entitled to be declared and returned as the winner of the presidential election held on February 25, 2023.
They want in the alternative, an order cancelling the election and compelling INEC to conduct a fresh election in which Tinubu, Kashim Shettima and the APC, listed as 2nd, 3rd and 4th respondents, shall not participate.
They want the court to declare that since Tinubu was not duly elected by a majority of the lawful votes cast in the election, therefore, his return as the winner of the presidential election, was unlawful, unconstitutional and of no effect whatsoever.
