Peter Obi Submits Election Results from Rivers, Ekiti, Other Four States to Back His Claim
The Labour Party, LP, presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi, who is challenging the victory of President Bola Tinubu in the February 25 election, on Thursday, presented certified copies of results of the election from six states of the federation, to support his claim.
Obi tendered the results, which were obtained from 115 Local Government Areas, LGAs, in evidence before the Presidential Election Petition Court, PEPC, sitting in Abuja.
The election results, which were contained in Forms EC8A, were tendered by one of his lawyers, Chief Emeka Opoko, SAN. Obi’s legal team was led by Prof. Awa Kalu, SAN.
The first set of results that were tendered before the court by the LP candidate who came third in the presidential election was from 15 out of 22 LGAs of Rivers State.
Despite opposition by all the respondents in the matter, Justice Haruna Tsammani-led’s five-member panel admitted the Rivers state results and marked them as Exhibits PD 1 to PD 15.
Obi and the LP also tendered results from 23 LGAs in Benue state, which were also admitted in evidence and marked as Exhibits PC 1 to PC 23, while results from 18 LGAs in Cross River State were added in evidence as Exhibits PD1 – PD 18.
In Niger state, Obi tendered Forms EC8A from 23 LGAs and they were admitted in evidence as Exhibits PE-1 to PE 23, as well as that of 20 LGAs in Osun state which were marked as Exhibits PF 1 – PF 20.
The last set of results the petitioners adduced and tendered in evidence before the court were from 16 LGAs in Ekiti and they were marked as Exhibits PG 1 to PG 16.
The Justice Tsammani-led panel subsequently adjourned further proceedings in the matter till Friday.
All the respondents said they would give reasons why they challenged the admissibility of the presidential election results that Obi and the LP tendered in evidence, in their final written address.
Cited as 1st to 4th respondents in the petition are; the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, President Bola Tinubu, Vice President Kashim Shettima and the All Progressives Congress, APC.
It will be recalled that Obi and the LP had indicated their decision to call a total of 50 witnesses in the matter.
Specifically, Obi, in the joint petition he filed with the LP, is contending that President Tinubu was not the valid winner of the election.
The petitioners, in the case marked: CA/PEPC/03/2023, equally maintained that President Tinubu was not qualified to participate in the presidential contest.
According to the petitioners, at the time Tinubu’s running mate, Shettima, became the Vice Presidential candidate, he was still the nominated candidate of the APC for the Borno Central Senatorial election.
The petitioners further challenged Tinubu’s eligibility to contest the presidential election, alleging that he was previously indicted and fined by a US court for an offence involving dishonesty and drug trafficking.
On the ground that the election was invalid by reason of corrupt practices and non-compliance with the provision of the Electoral Act 2022, the petitioners argued that INEC acted in breach of its own Regulations and Guidelines.
The Petitioners argued that INEC was mandatorily required to use technological devices for accreditation, verification and authentication of voters and their particulars as contained in its Regulations.
They are therefore praying the court to among other things declare that all votes recorded for Tinubu and APC were wasted votes owing to his non-qualification/disqualification.
They also want an order cancelling the election and compelling INEC to conduct a fresh election without Tinubu, Shettima and APC.
They urged the court to declare that since Tinubu was not duly elected by a majority of lawful votes cast in the election his return as winner was unlawful and unconstitutional.
In an alternative prayer, they want an order cancelling the presidential election on the ground that it was not conducted substantially in accordance with provisions of the Electoral Act 2022 and the Constitution.
Likewise, they applied for an order “cancelling the presidential election conducted on February 25th, 2023 and mandating the first respondent (INEC) to conduct a fresh election for the President, the Federal Republic of Nigeria”.
Meanwhile, both Obi and his Vice Presidential candidate Baba Ahmed Datti were in court on Thursday to observe the proceeding.
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