Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the February 25, presidential election has asked the presidential election tribunal to nullify the victory of Bola Tinubu, presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and the president-elect.
Obi who is at the court to challenge Tinubu’s victory, is seeking among other reliefs, the disqualification of the former Governor of Lagos State in the petition he filed at the Court of Appeal on Monday, stressing that the victory fell short of required minimum democratic standard.
The former Anambra State Governor is specifically contending that Tinubu didn’t win the number of valid votes to make him claim victory.
In his petition at the appellate court, the former Anambra State Governor also raised the contentious issue of the requirement that a candidate must obtain the 25 per cent votes in the Federal Capital Territory, in order to emerge as winner.
The petition said that Tinubu at the time of the election was not only not qualified to contest the election, but was not validly elected by majority of the lawful votes cast at the time of the election.
Obi is asking the tribunal to determine that all the votes recorded for Tinubu in the election “are wasted votes, owing to the non-qualification” of the president-elect and his running mate, Kashim Shettima.
“That it be determined that the 2nd 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.
Obi also prayed the court to make an order cancelling the election and compelling the 1st respondent (INEC) to conduct a fresh election at which the 2nd respondent (Tinubu), 3rd respondent (Shettima) and 4th respondent (APC) shall not participate.
In his petition, on Tuesday in Abuja, by their lead lawyer, Levy Uzoukwu, Obi and the LP also joined INEC, Kashim Shettima, the vice president-elect, and the APC as respondents.
INEC had on March 1, disclosed that Tinubu secured 8,794,726 votes, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party 6,984,520, while Obi polled 6,101,533.
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