As the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal continue to deliver judgement on the petitions filed by Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP), and the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) against INEC’s declaration of Bola Tinubu as the winner of the 2023 presidential election.
Here are the highlights of the rulings so far:
The court struck out the petition brought by the Allied Peoples Movement against President Bola Tinubu and his Vice President, Kashim Shettima saying that it lacks merit.
The court has ruled that the Labour Party, LP’s presidential candidate Peter Obi failed to identify polling units with irregularities during the presidential election in February 2023, saying that the petition of election malpractice was generic.
It further held that Obi could not prove that his votes were suppressed and that he scored the majority of lawful votes cast.
The tribunal held that the petitioners failed to establish their allegations of overvoting and voter suppression.
On transmission of election results, the tribunal said INEC is at liberty to define the mode of results transmission it intends to use. It added that there is no specific provision for the electronic transmission of election results in the Electoral Act 2022.
It went further to say that INEC regulations and the Electoral Act give room for manual collation of results, noting that electronic transmission of results is optional.
The court ruled that Obi/LP failed to prove INEC intentionally refused to upload results as well as how they were affected by INEC’s failure to transmit results electronically
On 25% in FCT, the tribunal said that the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has no special status over other 36 states of the federation over the 25% required votes in the presidential election held on February 25.
The court in its ruling on Wednesday says the FCT is not superior to any state. and that the Labour Party’s “interpretation of 134(2)(b) of the constitution is completely fallacious, if not outrightly ridiculous.”
The court accepted only 3 out of the 13 called by Obi/LP.
On Tinubu being convicted, the court said Bola Tinubu was not convicted as civil forfeiture is not a criminal matter.
Ifunanya Ikueze is an Engineer, Safety Professional, Writer, Investor, Entrepreneur and Educator.
