The petitioners, seeking nullification of Tinubu’s emergence as President-elect as Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party; Peter Obi of Labour Party; Solomon Okangbuan of Action Alliance and Allied People’s Movement’s Chichi Ojei.
Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party came second with 6,984,520 votes; while Obi came third with 6,101,533 votes.
Respondents to the petition filed by Obi and LP marked CA/PEPC/03/2023 were, INEC, Tinubu, Shettima Kashim, his running mate, and the APC.
Obi asserted that 11 states had been rigged, and he promised to prove it in the declaration of results based on the uploaded results.
The petition stated, “The petitioners shall show that in the computation and declaration of the result of the election, based on the updated results, the votes recorded for the second respondent (Tinubu) did not comply with the legitimate process for the computation of the result and disfavoured the petitioners in the following states: Rivers, Lagos, Taraba, Benue, Adamawa, Imo, Bauchi, Borno, Kaduna, Plateau and other states of the federation.’’
Even though at the time of the announcement, all of the polling unit results had not yet been fully scanned, uploaded, and transferred electronically as required by the Electoral Act, Obi and LP claimed INEC broke its own rules when it published the outcome.
The petitioners requested 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 the votes recorded for the second respondent in the election are wasted votes, owing to the non-qualification of the second and third respondents.
“That it is determined that on the basis of the remaining votes (after discountenancing the votes credited to the second respondent) the first petitioner (Obi) scored a majority of the lawful votes cast at the election and had not less than 25 per cent of the votes cast in each of at least two-thirds of the states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja and satisfied the constitutional requirements to be declared the winner of the February 25, 2023, presidential election.
“That it be determined that the second respondent (Tinubu), having failed to score one-quarter of the votes cast at the presidential election in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, was not entitled to be declared and returned as the winner of the presidential election held on February 25, 2023.’’
In addition, the petitioners are requesting that the tribunal issue a ruling ordering INEC to hold a new election in which Tinubu, Shettima, and the APC shall not run.
The tribunal has not yet set a time for the petition's hearing, which was submitted by Livy Ozoukwu, the petitioners' primary attorney.
The petition from Atiku and the PDP was designated CA/PEPC/05/2023, and respondents included INEC, Tinubu, and the APC.
The petition's submission was verified by Silas Onu of Atiku's legal team to Channels TV on Tuesday.
In essence, the petition calls for the annulment of Tinubu's victory.
