Obi, others challenge Tinubu’s victory, file petitions

• U.S. demands prosecution of perpetrators of voter suppression, violence in guber polls
• IPAC demands announcement of Enugu result
• Dare defeats Matawalle, Agbu wins

Legal fireworks have been initiated at the Court of Appeal, Abuja, as three out of the 18 political parties that participated in the February 25 presidential election, yesterday, filed their individual petitions against the outcome of the election.

Among the petitioners challenging the declaration of the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, as winner of the election, are the Labour Party (LP) and its presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi; Action Alliance (AA) and its presidential candidate, Mr. Solomon Okangbuan, and Allied People’s Movement (APM) and its presidential candidate, Princess Chichi Ojei.

In the separate suits marked CA/PEPC/01/2023; CA/PEPC/03/2023 and CA/PEPC/04/2023; they are challenging the outcome of the February 25 presidential election on grounds of substantial non-compliance with the electoral law, as well as the guidelines of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The petitioners also alleged that the February 25 presidential election was characterised by huge irregularities and electoral malpractices following INEC’s failure to electronically upload results immediately from its polling units to the INEC Results Viewing Portal (IREV).

While INEC is the 1st respondent, Tinubu, his vice president-elect, Kashim Shetima and the APC are 2nd, 3rd and 4th respectively.

Besides non-compliance, Obi and LP, in their petition, are claiming that at the time of the presidential election, Tinubu and Shettima were not qualified to contest it.

“That it be determined that all the votes recorded for the 2nd respondent in the election are wasted votes owing to the non-qualification/ disqualification of 2 and 3 respondents.

“That it be determined that on the basis of the remaining votes after discountenancing the votes credited to the 2 and 3 respondents, the 1st petitioner scored a majority of the lawful votes cast at the election and had not less than 25 per cent in each of at least 2/3 of the states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja and satisfied the constitutional requirements to be declared the winner of February 25, 2023 presidential election.

“That it be determined that 2nd respondent having failed to score one-quarter of the votes cast at the presidential election in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja was not entitled to be declared and returned as the winner of the presidential election held on Saturday, February 25, 2023,” The petitioners’ prayed.

In addition to those, Obi and LP in ground one, paragraph 28 of the petition declared that Tinubu was not qualified to contest for the presidency because he was fined in America for involving in dishonesty bordering on narcotics trafficking.

They stated: “The petitioners further plead that the 2nd respondent was also at the time of the election not qualified to contest for election to the office of President, as he was fined the sum of $460,000 (Four-Hundred and Sixty Thousand United States Dollars) for an offence involving dishonesty, namely narcotics trafficking imposed by the United States District Court, Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, in Case No: 93C 4483.

“That by reason of the said disqualification of the 2nd and 3rd respondents, the votes purportedly recorded for the 2nd respondent in the election were/are wasted and invalid; and that the petitioners who from the correct result of the election obtained the highest number of lawful votes cast in the election and met the constitutional requirements to be declared and returned as the winner of the election ought to be declared as the winner of the Presidential election held on February 25, 2023.”

INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, had on March 1, declared Tinubu president-elect on grounds that his party scored majority of votes cast at the poll and met all the requirements of the laws.

In the results he announced, Tinubu polled 8,805,835 votes to emerge victorious. Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who came second, scored 6,984,640 votes, while Obi scored 6,101,533 votes.

At the moment, America has called on the Federal Government to bring to justice everyone that was involved in violence, intimidation and suppression of voters during the last election.

It also said it was considering taking all available actions, including additional visa restrictions, on individuals believed to be responsible for, or complicit in undermining the democratic process in Nigeria.

This was contained in a statement on Tuesday by American Embassy in Nigeria, which reads in part: “We call on Nigerian authorities to hold accountable and bring to justice any individual found to have ordered or carried out efforts to intimidate voters and suppress voting during the election process.”

The statement said America was deeply troubled by the disturbing acts of violent, voter intimidation and suppression during polls in Lagos, Kano, and other states.

“Members of the U.S. diplomatic mission observed the elections in Lagos and elsewhere and witnessed some of these incidents first-hand. The use of ethnically charged rhetoric before, during, and after the gubernatorial election in Lagos was particularly concerning.  We commend all Nigerian political actors, religious and community leaders, youth and citizens who have chosen to reject and speak out against such violence and inflammatory language, affirming Nigerians’ commitment to and respect for the democratic process.

“We call on Nigerian authorities to hold accountable and bring to justice any individual found to have ordered or carried out efforts to intimidate voters and suppress voting during the election process.  The United States likewise will consider all available actions, including additional visa restrictions, on individuals believed to be responsible for, or complicit in, undermining the democratic process in Nigeria,” it stated.

Consequently, America said it joined other international observers in urging INEC to improve voting processes and technical elements that experienced flaws in the exercise.

While noting that there were operational improvement in the March 18 elections in the area of timeliness and visibility of uploaded results, it renewed its call for any challenges to election results to go through established legal processes, which must not be interfered with.

Meanwhile, the governorship candidate of the PDP in Zamfara State, Dr. Dauda Dare, has been declared winner of the March 18 exercise, polling 377,726 votes.

He defeated the incumbent Governor, Bello Mohammed Matawalle, candidate of the APC, who polled 311,976.

The State Returning Officer and Vice Chancellor, Federal University Birnin Kebbi, Prof. Kasimu Shehu, said: “Having satisfied the requirements of the law and scored the highest votes against the candidates from the other parties in the contest, Dr. Dare is hereby declared winner.”

In Taraba State, PDP candidate, Kefas Agbu was declared winner of the election polling 257,926, trouncing the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) candidate, Prof. Sani Yahaya, who got 202,277 votes, while Senator Emmanuel Bwacha of APC scored 142,502 votes to emerge third in the contest.

Inter-party Advisory Council (IPAC) in Enugu State has called on INEC chairman to direct the state’s Returning Officer, Prof. Maduebibisi Iwe to announce the already collated results of governorship election from the 17 local councils and declare the winner without further delay.

IPAC which made the call during a press conference in Enugu, on Tuesday, stated that, “any action short of this will be outside the law and could bring anarchy to an already fragile situation,” stressing that “INEC has no power under our laws to review collated results.”

The parties maintained that “the results of the 17 local councils, including those of Nkanu East and Nsukka, were all collated by the State Returning Officer on March 19, 2023” stating, that “by the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022, the only other duty remaining for the State Returning Officer, who is acting on INEC’s behalf is to add up the figures, announce them, and declare the winner in line with Section 65 and 66 of the Electoral Act 2022.”