The presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, has asked the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal to declare him the winner of the February 25, presidential election.
Obi’s petition was filed to challenge the February 25, presidential and National Assembly elections which saw the declaration of Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the president-elect with 8,794,726 votes, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the second with 6,984,520 votes and Obi third with 6,101,533 votes.
The five ground-petition brought by a team of lawyers led by Levi Uzoukwu (SAN) has the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Tinubu, his deputy, Kashim Shettima, and the APC as respondents.
Among the reliefs sought by LP and Obi is a declaration that Tinubu and Shettima were not qualified to contest the office having not been duly sponsored by the APC for the office of the President and Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
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LP and Obi averred that Shettima was nominated as the vice-presidential candidate on July 14, 2022, while still the senatorial candidate for Borno Central contrary to the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022.
The petitioners contended that Tinubu was at the time of the election not qualified to contest for the office of the president as he was fined the sum of $460,000 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, between the United States of America vs Funds in account 263226700 held by Heritage Bank in the name of Bola Tinubu.
By the provision of Section 132(8) of the Electoral Act, the petition is expected to be heard and determined within 180 days. Thereafter, another 60 days for the appeal.
