From Agency's report
The All Progressives Congress (APC), on Monday, 11 April, 2023 prayed the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) in Abuja to dismiss the petition filed by the Labour Party (LP) and its Presidential Candidate, Peter Obi, against the emergence of Sen. Bola Tinubu as president-elect in the February 25 election.
The party asked the tribunal to dismiss the petition with substantial cost on the grounds that it lacked merit and was frivolous.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Obi, the 1st petitioner, and LP, the 2nd petitioner, had sued the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Tinubu, Sen. Kashim Shettima and APC as 1st to 4th respondents, respectively.
The petitioners are seeking the nullification of the election victory of Tinubu and Shettima in the Feb. 25 presidential poll.
While former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) came second with 6,984,520 votes in the election, Obi came third with 6,101,533 votes.
Abubakar and PDP are also challenging outcome of the poll.
However, in the petition marked: CA/PEPC/03/2023 filed by Obi and LP’s lead counsel, Livy Ozoukwu, they contended that Tinubu “was not duly elected by a majority of the lawful votes cast at the time of the election.”
The petitioners claimed there was rigging in 11 states, adding that they would demonstrate this in the declaration of results based on the uploaded results.
Obi and LP said INEC violated its own regulations when it announced the result despite the fact that at the time of the announcement, the totality of the polling unit results had yet to be fully scanned, uploaded and transmitted electronically as required by the Electoral Act.
Among other prayers, the petitioners urged the tribunal to “determine that, at the time of the presidential election held on February 25, 2023, the 2nd and 3rd respondents (Tinubu and Shettima) were not qualified to contest the election.
“That it be determined that all the votes recorded for the 2nd respondent in the election are wasted votes, owing to the non-qualification of the 2nd and 3rd respondents.
“That it is determined that on the basis of the remaining votes (after discountenancing the votes credited to the 2nd respondent), the 1st 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 FCT and satisfied the constitutional requirements to be declared the winner of the February 25 presidential election.
“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 FCT, was not entitled to be declared and returned as the winner of the presidential election held on February 25.”
Responding, the APC prayed the court to dismiss the suit on the ground that Obi, the 1st petitioner, lacked requisite locus standi to institute the petition because he was not a member of the LP at least 30 days before the party’s presidential primary to be validly sponsored by the party.
It said: “The 1st petitioner (Obi) was a member of PDP until May 24, 2022.
“1st petitioner was screened as a presidential aspirant of the PDP in April 2022.
“1st petitioner participated and was cleared to contest the presidential election while being a member of the PDP.
“1st petitioner purportedly resigned his membership of PDP on May 24, 2022, to purportedly join the 2nd petitioner (Labour Party) on May 27, 2022.
“2nd petitioner conducted its presidential primary on May 30, 2022, which purportedly produced 1st petitioner as its candidate, which time contravened Section 77(3) of the Electoral Act for him to contest the primary election as a member of the 2nd petitioner.”
The party argued that Obi was not a member of LP at the time of his alleged sponsorship.
The APC argued that “by the mandatory provisions of Section 77 (1) (2) and (3) of the Electoral Act 2022, a political party shall maintain a register and shall make such register available to INEC not later than 30 days before the date fixed for the party primaries, congresses and convention.”
It stated further that all the PDP’s presidential aspirants were screened on April 29, 2022, an exercise in which Obi participated and was cleared to contest while being a member of the party.
It argued that the petition was incompetent since Obi’s name could not have been in LP’s register made available to INEC at the time he joined the party.
The APC equally argued that the petition was improperly constituted, having failed to join Atiku Abubakar and PDP, which were necessary parties to be affected by the reliefs sought.
“By Paragraph 17 of the petition, the petitioners, on their own, stated that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar came second in the presidential election with 6,984,520 votes as against the petitioners who came third with 6,101,533 votes;
“At Paragraph 102 (ii) of the petition, the petitioners urged the tribunal to determine that the 1st petitioner scored the majority of lawful votes without joining Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in the petition.
“For the tribunal to grant prayer (iii) of the petitioners, the tribunal must have set aside the scores and election of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
“Alhaji Atiku Abubakar must be heard before his votes can be discountenanced by the tribunal,” it said.
The Party therefore, argued that the tribunal lacked the requisite jurisdiction to entertain pre-election complaints embedded in the petition as presently constituted, among other arguments.
As it prayed the tribunal to dismiss the petition with substantial cost as the same was devoid of any merit and founded on frivolity.
Besides the reply brief to the petition, the APC also on Monday filed a 'Notice of Preliminary Objection' to its hearing, on the grounds that it is incompetent and lacks merit just as the Tribunal does not have the jurisdiction to entertain it in the first place.
The Party urged the PEPC to reject the petition in its notice of preliminary objection marked: CA/PEPC/03/2023 and filed at PEPC Secretariat on Monday night by Thomas Ojo, a member of the party’s legal team led by Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, in Abuja.
Also, INEC defended the outcome of the polls stating the election was conducted in substantial compliance to the provision of the Electoral Act 2022 contrary to the allegations of the LP and its Presidential candidate, Peter Obi.
In their separate reply to the petition of the LP and Obi; the APC and INEC urged the Tribunal to refuse all the reliefs sought on the grounds that their petition lacks merit and was frivolous.
Responding to the issues of alleged unlawful nomination of the vice presidential candidate, Senator Kasim Shetima and allegations of conviction involving the President-elect, the APC argued both issues are outside the jurisdiction of the election petition tribunal.
"The petitioners had urged the tribunal to nullify Tinubu’s election and hold that the APC had no lawful candidate in the presidential poll because the vice president-elect was a senatorial candidate as at the time he was nominated as running mate to Tinubu.
But responding , the APC argued that complaints bordering on disqualification, nomination and sponsorship of candidates for an election are preelection matters that cannot be raised or canvased before an election tribunal as purportedly done herein by the Petitioners.
Further, the APC argued that the issue has become statute barred having not been filed within the time provided by law.
APC further disclosed that the Court of Appeal has already settled and/or determined the validity of the nomination of the 3rd Respondent as the 2nd Respondent’s lawful running mate for the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in Appeal No. CA/ABJ/ CS/108/2023 decided on 24 March, 2023.
On the issue of alleged conviction and forfeiture involving the President-elect, the APC said, “facts pleaded in paragraphs 28-32 of the petition alleging conviction of the 2nd respondent in 1993 is not pleadable as fact to support grounds of disqualification of the 2nd respondent.
It added that “the issue of forfeiture raised against the 2nd Respondent in their petition are already pending before the Federal High Court in suit number FHC/ ABJ/CS/206/2023 between PEOPLES DEMOCRATIC PARTY V CODE of CONDUCT TRIBUNAL & 6 ORS and raising same before this court is an abuse of court process.
While the APC noted that the petitioners failed to supply facts in support of corrupt practices they claimed marred the February 25 presidential election, it urged the tribunal to dismiss the LP and Obi’s petition with cost for lacking in merit and a waste of the court’s time.
Obi in his petition filed by his team of lawyers including 13 Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs), amongst whom are Dr Livy Uzoukwu, Away Kalu, Onyechi Ikpeazu, Constitutional lawyer, Chief Sebastian Hon and Jibrin Okutepa, hinged his request on the grounds that he and not Tinubu scored majority of lawful votes cast at the presidential poll.
Besides, Obi insisted that Tinubu and his Vice-president-elect, Kasheem Shetima ought not to be on the presidential ballot on grounds that they were not lawfully nominated by their party.
The petition marked: CA/PEPC/03/2023 and filed by Dr Uzoukwu, SAN, is predicated on three grounds amongst which are that; Tinubu as at the time of the election was not qualified to contest the election; the election of Tinubu was invalid by reason of corrupt practices or non compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022 and that Tinubu was not duly elected by majority of the lawful votes cast at the presidential election.
“The Petitioners aver that on July 14, 2022, the 3rd Respondent, contrary to the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022, whilst still being a Senatorial candidate for Borno Central Constituency, knowingly allowed himself to be nominated as the Vice Presidential Candidate to the 2nd Respondent on the platform of the 4th Respondent and became the new Candidate for the office of the Vice President on that date (14 July 2022).
“The Petitioners shall rely on Form EC11A signed by the 3rd Respondent and the officials of the 4th Respondent on that same July 14, 2022.
“It is also the Petitioners’ case that a candidate, in this case the 3rd Respondent, shall not knowingly allow himself to be nominated in more than one constituency.
“The Petitioners shall contend at the trial that the purported sponsorship of the 2nd and 3rd Respondents by the 4th Respondent was rendered invalid by reason of the 3rd Respondent knowingly allowing himself to be nominated as the Vice Presidential Candidate whilst he was still a Senatorial Candidate for the Borno Central Constituency.
“The Petitioners shall further contend that for this reason, the votes purportedly recorded for the 2nd Respondent at the contested Presidential election were/are wasted votes and ought to be disregarded”.
Among documents they intend to tender in proving their claim include; a) Verified Complaint for Forfeiture, submitted by Michael J. Shepard (United States Attorney) and signed by Marsha A. McClellan (Assistant United States Attorney);
b) Stipulations and Compromise Settlement of Claims to the Funds held by Heritage Bank and CitiBank; and
c) Decree of Forfeiture as to Funds held by First Heritage Bank, signed by United States District Judge, John A. Nordberg.
“The Petitioners shall contend that by reason of the said disqualification of the 2nd and 3rd Respondents, the votes purportedly recorded for the 2nd Respondent in the election were/are wasted and invalid; and that the 1st Petitioner who from the correct result of the election obtained the highest number of lawful votes cast in the election and met the constitutional requirements to be declared and returned as the winner of the election, ought to be declared as the winner of the Presidential election held on February 25, 2023
On the grounds of alleged corrupt practices or non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022, it was the case of the petitioners that INEC the 4th respondent failed to transmit results electronically as stipulated by the law.
According to Obi and LP, the deployment of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System BVAS (BVAS), Election Results Collation System (CSRVS) and the INEC Results Viewing Portal are targeting at giving the election necessary transparency and credibility.
However, they claimed that despite a court order INEC refused to give/issue those forms and refused to allow the inspection of the forms despite the order of Court
“The Petitioners further plead that due to the 1st Respondent’s refusal and neglect to upload and transmit the result of the election in the polling units to the IReV as required by law on the day of the election, the 1st Respondent suppressed the actual scores obtained by the Petitioners.
“The suppression of the 1st Petitioner’s scores which occurred in Eighteen Thousand and Eighty-Eight (18,088) Polling Units was orchestrated by the 1st Respondent deliberately uploading unreadable and blurred Forms EC8As on the IReV; and thereby, suppressed the lawful scores obtained by the Petitioners in the said Polling Units.
“The Petitioners hereby plead and shall at trial rely on a Spread Sheet containing the Polling Units Codes and details of the aforesaid Eighteen Thousand and Eighty-Eight Polling Units, as well as the authentic results in the aforesaid Eighteen Thousand and Eighty eight Polling Units."
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