Again, Obi, LP call for nullification of Tinubu’s election

The Labour Party (LP) and its Presidential candidate, Peter Obi, have once again, re-echoed their call to the Presidential Election Petition Court to nullify the victory of President Bola Tinubu.

LP and Obi argued that President Tinubu and the Vice President, Kashim Shettma, were not qualified to have contested the election.

Also, they contend that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was wrong to have declared Tinubu the winner of the election despite not scoring 25 percent of votes in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

These were their arguments in their final written address in response to the joint final address by Tinubu and Shettima, seeking the dismissal of the petition by the Labour Party and its candidate.

Emphasising their claim of non-compliance with the Electoral Act and other related regulations, Obi and his party said INEC’s alleged failure to transmit the results of the presidential election electronically from the polling units to its results viewing portal amounted to non-compliance.

They also argued that they did substantially well to prove their case, having called 13 witnesses and tendered volumes of documents, as compared to one witness from INEC, one from Tinubu and Shettima, and none from the All Progressives Congress (APC).

They further argue that the forfeiture proceedings allegedly involving Tinubu in a United States District Court were sufficient to have him disqualified by INEC from standing for election.

The Labour Party and Obi argued that it was wrong for INEC to have declared Tinubu the winner given his failure to win 25 percent of votes in the FCT.

They concluded that obtaining 25 percent votes in the FCT is an additional stand-alone requirement for election into the office of the president or the FCT is only a state, together with Nigeria’s 36 states, where the winning candidate must have obtained at least 25 percent in two-thirds of all states (37 states).

“Hence, the deliberate amendment of the drafters of the 1999 Constitution, to include the additional requirement of 25 percent votes in the FCT must not be rendered redundant as it is possible that the drafters intended that the popularity of the winning candidate must extend not only to an appreciable geographical spread but also to the FCT being the capital city and melting pot for all Nigerians and which would truly reflect the will of all Nigerians.”

They finally urged the court to uphold their petition and grant their relief.