The All Progressives Congress (APC) urged the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) in Abuja on Monday to dismiss the petition filed by the Labour Party (LP) and its Presidential Candidate, Mr Peter Obi, challenging Sen. Bola Tinubu’s election as president-elect in the February 25 election.
The APC, as the fourth respondent, urged the PEPC to reject the petition in a preliminary objection marked CA/PEPC/03/2023 and filed at the PEPC Secretariat on Monday night by Thomas Ojo, a member of the party’s legal team led by Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, in Abuja.
The party requested that the tribunal dismiss the petition with substantial costs because it lacked merit and was frivolous.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Obi, the first petitioner, and LP, the second petitioner, sued the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Tinubu, Sen. Kashim Shettima, and the APC as the first to fourth respondents, respectively.
The petitioners want Tinubu and Shettima’s election victories in the Feb. 25 presidential election overturned.
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) came in second with 6,984,520 votes, while Obi received 6,101,533 votes.
Abubakar and the PDP are also contesting the election results.
Obi and LP’s lead counsel, Livy Ozoukwu, contended in the petition marked CA/PEPC/03/2023 that Tinubu “was not duly elected by a majority of the lawful votes cast at the time of the election.”
The petitioners claimed that there was rigging in 11 states and promised to prove it in the declaration of results based on the uploaded results.
Obi and LP claimed that INEC violated its own regulations when it announced the results despite the fact that the totality of polling unit results had yet to be fully scanned, uploaded, and transmitted electronically as required by the Electoral Act at the time of the announcement.
The petitioners asked the tribunal, among other things, to “determine that, at the time of the presidential election held on February 25, 2023, the second and third respondents (Tinubu and Shettima) were not qualified to contest the election.”
“That it be determined that all votes cast for the second respondent in the election were squandered due to the non-qualification of the second and third respondents.”
“It is determined that, based on the remaining votes (after discounting the votes credited to the 2nd respondent), the 1st petitioner (Obi) received a majority of the lawful votes cast at the election and received not less than 25% of the votes cast in each of at least two-thirds of the federation’s and the FCT’s states, and satisfied the constitutional requirements to be declared the winner of the February 25 presidential election.”
“That it be determined that the second respondent (Tinubu) was not entitled to be declared and returned as the winner of the presidential election held on February 25 because he did not receive one-quarter of the votes cast.”
In its response, the APC asked the court to dismiss the suit on the grounds that Obi, the first petitioner, lacked the required locus standi to institute the petition because he had not been a member of the LP for at least 30 days prior to the party’s presidential primary to be validly sponsored by the party.
“The first petitioner (Obi) was a member of the PDP until May 24, 2022,” it said.
“The first petitioner was screened as a PDP presidential candidate in Apni 2022.”
“The first petitioner participated and was cleared to run for president while a member of the PDP.”
“On May 24, 2022, the first petitioner allegedly resigned from the PDP in order to join the second petitioner (Labour Party) on May 27, 2022.”
“On May 30, 2022, the 2nd petitioner held its presidential primary, purportedly producing 1st petitioner as its candidate, which time contravened Section 77(3) of the Electoral Act for him to contest the primary election as a member of the 2nd petitioner.”
Obi, according to the party, was not a member of LP at the time of his alleged sponsorship.
According to the APC, “by the mandatory provisions of Section 77 (1) (2) and (3) of the Electoral Act 2022, a political party shall maintain a register and shall make the same available to INEC not later than 30 days before the date fixed for the party primaries, congresses, and convention.”
It went on to say that on April 29, 2022, all of the PDP’s presidential candidates were screened, an exercise in which Obi took part and was cleared to run while still a member of the party.
It claimed that the petition was ineffective because Obi’s name could not have been on the LP’s register made available to INEC when he joined the party.
The APC also claimed that the petition was improperly constituted because it failed to include Atiku Abubakar and the PDP, who were required parties to be affected by the reliefs sought.
“According to paragraph 17 of the petition, the petitioners stated that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar finished second in the presidential election with 6,984,520 votes, while the petitioners finished third with 6,101,533 votes.”
“At paragraph 102 (ii) of the petition, the petitioners urged the tribunal to rule that the first petitioner received the majority of valid votes without including Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in the petition.”
“In order for the tribunal to grant the petitioners’ prayer (iii), the tribunal must have set aside the scores and election of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.”
“Alhaji Atiku Abubakar must be heard before the tribunal can disregard his votes,” it said.
As a result, the party argued, among other things, that the tribunal lacked the necessary jurisdiction to hear pre-election complaints embedded in the petition as it is now.
The APC urged the tribunal to dismiss the petition with substantial costs because it lacked merit and was based on frivolity.
