Dismisses Atiku, Obi's Petitions
The Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Abuja, on Wednesday, affirmed the victory of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the February 25, 2023 presidential poll.
In dismissing the petitions, the Tribunal ruled that the Labour Party and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, failed to prove that President Tinubu was convicted of drug-related charges in the United States of America.
The five-man panel led by Justice Haruna Tsammani ruled that no record of criminal arrest or conviction was established against Tinubu by the petitioners
“The petitioners failed to show evidence that the president was detained or convicted for any particular offence as alleged by the petitioners,” the Tribunal held.
The justice clarified that the fine imposed on Tinubu by a United States court was over a civil forfeiture proceeding.
The Tribunal also declared that the Federal Capital Territory does not hold a higher status than other states in the country. Justice Tsammani, averred that Section 134 (1) and (2) of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria (as amended) stipulates that a presidential candidate must attain or score a majority of votes cast in a presidential election, where two or more candidates are involved, and at least 25% in two-thirds of the 36 States and FCT to meet the constitutional requirement to be declared as duly elected as President of Nigeria.
The court also made it known that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), in accordance with Sections 52 and 65 of the Electoral Act 2022, was at liberty to prescribe the manner in which election results were transmitted during the poll.
The petition of the Labour Party that the victory of President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) be annulled on the basis on the “failure” of the commission’s Results Viewing Portal (IReV) to upload election results electronically in real time was therefore thrown out.
Ruling in petitions of the People's Democratic Party (PDP), the Tribunal held that the inability of the party to bring it's party agents from the polling units where irregularities were allegedly recorded to testify proved fatal to it's case as those allegations could not be proved by the witnesses it presented.
In the judgment that spanned over 10 hours, the Tribunal therefore unanimously dismissed the petitions of the parties challenging the elections for lacking in merit.
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