The Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has legally challenged the victory of Bola Tinubu as Nigeria’s president-elect in the February 25 election.
Mr Obi, who came third in the election, filed his petition at the Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja, at about midnight on Tuesday.
The Labour Party candidate came third in the election after garnering 6,101,533 votes; Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) PDP came second in the election polled 6,984,520 votes while Rabiu Kwankwaso of the NNPP came fourth with 1,496,687 votes.
Principal among the five prayers tendered by him in his petition is a call on the court to cancel the February 25 presidential election and order a fresh poll.
The petition, jointly filed by Mr Obi and the Labour Party as co-petitioners, joined the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mr Tinubu, Shettima Kashim (vice president-elect), and the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the respondents.
The 21st day after the declaration of the results of the election on March 1, is Tuesday, March 21, the last day he any other aggrieved candidates and political parties had to file their petition in the court.
INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, who announced the final results in the early hour of March 1 in Abuja.
Mr Obi’s lead lawyer, Livy Uzoukwu, said Mr Tinubu “at the time of the (presidential) election was not qualified to contest the election.”
Mr Uzoukwu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), argued that the president-elect “was not duly elected by majority of the lawful votes cast at the time of the election.”
The senior lawyer led Atiku’s legal team when the former vice president unsuccessfully challenged the victory of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019.
Prayers
One of his five prayers includes the need to “determine that at the time of the presidential election held on 25 February, 2023,” Messrs Tinubu and Shettima “were not qualified to contest the election.”
He prayed the tribunal “to determine that all the votes recorded for” Mr Tinubu “in the election are wasted votes, owing to the non-qualification” of the president-elect and Mr Shettima.
