The Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal (PEPT) has dismissed the petitions filed by the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), the Labor Party (LP) and its Presidential Candidate, Peter Obi challenging the victory of Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the February 25 presidential election.
The Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal is set to issue its decision today, and heavy security has already been put in place.
Nigerians from all walks of life are anxiously awaiting the live broadcast hearings from the Tribunal’s site at the Court of Appeal in Abuja, the country’s capital.
President Bola Tinubu’s announcement as the victor of the 2023 presidential election has been challenged by Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP), and the Allied Peoples Movement (APM).
APM vs INEC, APC, Tinubu and Shettima
Earlier today, the tribunal dismissed the petition by the Allied Peoples Movement on the ground that the party (APM) has no business with the internal affairs of the defendant (APC).
Obi, LP vs INEC, APC, Tinubu and Shettima
Also, the PEPT has also nullified the petitions brought before its court by the Labour Party and its candidates on the following grounds:
1. The petitioners’ charges of overvoting and voter suppression were found to be unfounded by the court.
2. The court is focusing on allegations of corruption that Obi claims were recorded during the polls. Vote suppression, inflated results, and over-voting are among them.
3. However, Just Tsammani stated that several paragraphs relevant to these accusations were previously stricken out owing to their imprecise and general nature.
4. The PEPT decided that Obi failed to prove that INEC purposefully delayed uploading polling unit results to IReV in order to skew the results to Tinubu’s advantage.
5. The court ruled that:
“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 noncompliance substantially affected them. If they fail to show the same, the petition fails.”
6. According to the PEPT, INEC procedures and the Electoral Act allow for manual result collation. It said that an electronic transmission is at best optional.
7. The court went on to say that the only device that INEC must employ for elections is the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS).
8. It was highlighted that there is no regulation requiring BVAS to be utilised to electronically transmit polling unit results.
cc: Channels TV
