The Presidential Election Petitions Court has rejected the opposition challenge to Bola Tinubu’s win in the presidential election.
The court described the petitions of the Labour Party (LP) and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, as “unmeritorious.”
Obi and Labour Party claimed that President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was not duly elected during the February 25, 2023 poll.
Tinubu had been declared President with approximately a third of the votes ahead of closest rivals, Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party.
Abubakar and Obi had asked the court to invalidate the election, alleging irregularities.
The five-man panel led by Justice Haruna Tsammani said that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has the liberty to define means of transmitting elections results.
The court stated this while giving verdict on the issue of substantial non-compliance with the provisions of the law, especially with regard to non-transmission of result sheets to INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV).
According to the court, there is no law that says INEC must transfer or transmit the results of the election from the polling units electronically.
Meanwhile, the court ruled that the Labour Party (LP) and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, failed to prove that President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was convicted for money laundering in the United States.
The tribunal ruled that no record of criminal arrest or conviction was established against Tinubu by the petitioners.
The Court ruled that the Labour Party (LP) and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, failed to establish that INEC deliberately refused to promptly upload polling unit results to its Results Viewing Portal (IReV) in order to manipulate the results in favour of President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
“The petitioner made the allegation of non-compliance a substantial part of their case. By the provisions of Section 135(2) of the Electoral Act, they are required to show how such non compliance substantially affected them. If they fail to show same, the petition fails.”
Presidential Election Petitions Court
The court was also reading its judgement on a second petition made by Atiku Abubakar’s People’s Democratic Party (PDP) which is also expected to be dismissed.
Labour Party Rejects Court Decision
The Labour Party has rejected the judgment made by the Presidential Election Petitions Court in the party’s petitions challenging the electoral victory of President Bola Tinubu.
In a statement after the tribunal’s verdict on Wednesday, September 6,2023, the Labour Party’s National Publicity Secretary, Obiora Ifoh, asserted that justice was not served in the petitions of the party against the APC and Tinubu.
The party said the judgment of the court “did not reflect the law and the desire of the people”.
“Nigerians were witnesses to the electoral robbery that took place on February 25, 2023, which was globally condemned but the Tribunal in its wisdom refused to accept the obvious,” the statement read.
“What is at stake is democracy and we will not relent until the people will prevail,” the statement added.
“We salute the doggedness of our team of lawyers who fearlessly exposed the wrath in our system. We can only weep for democracy in Nigeria but we refuse to give up on Nigeria.”
Obiora Ifoh
Ifoh also said that the Labour Party will make its next move known upon consultation with its lawyers after receiving the Certified True Copy of the judgments.
