PEPC dismisses Obi, Atiku’s petitions, affirms Tinubu’s victory

 Presidential Election Petition Court(PEPC) on Wednesday, September 6, upheld the victory of President Bola Tinubu’s victory in the February 25, 2023 Presidential election.

According to Justice Haruna Tsammani, who led the five-man panel, said, “This petition accordingly lacks merit. I affirm the return of Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the duly elected President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The parties are to bear their cost.”

In the petition, APM sought the nullification of Tinubu’s election on the grounds of the double nomination of the Vice Presidential candidate of the APC, Sen. Kashim Shettima.

In the Judgment, Justice Haruna Tsamani dismissed the petition for lacking in merit due to the following reasons:

That the issue of a nomination or double nomination did not qualify as a ground for disqualification in respect of the presidential election as provided in the constitution.

That the issues raised by APM in the petition contained are pre-election matters that could only be treated at the Federal High Court.

That since the petition centred on the qualification or otherwise of President Tinubu to contest the presidential election that was held on February 25, the APM, ought to have gone to court within 14 days after Tinubu was nominated by the All Progressives Congress, APC.

That since the cause of action bordered on a pre-election matter, the APM, lacked the locus standi to challenge Tinubu’s nomination.

The court said, “The petition is without Merit, the contention of the Petitioner is discountenance.”

The tribunal held that the petitioner failed to prove that Tinubu breached Section 35 of the Electoral Act, 2022, when he nominated Shettima as his Deputy, adding that it was the president’s prerogative to choose his running mate.

In addition, the apex court held that the issue of alleged double nomination has been dealt with by the Supreme Court which is the final court in the land and as such no other court can adjudicate in it.

“The petitioner failed to prove that Tinubu was not qualified to contest the February 25 presidential election on the grounds of double nomination,” the court held.

In the judgment, chairman of the Tribunal Justice Haruna Tsamani held that, Peter Obi’s allegations that votes credited to Tinubu were inflated were untenable because he never mentioned the number of the votes dashed to Tinubu.

On the Labour Party’s Petition as regards 25% in FCT, the Tribunal rules that the FCT does not enjoy special privileges ahead of other states and is hereby dismissed.

On the allegations of corrupt practices, the Appallet court stated that it is not every allegation of corruption that is regarded as corrupt practices adding that averments in a pleading must be specific and not general as done by Obi.

The Tribunal also held that Peter Obi did not prove the particular polling units where elections did not take place and that he also failed to specify particulars of polling units where the complainants of irregularities were alleged.

The court held that Petitioner who alleged blurred results in 1888 polling units could not provide evidence or state-specific polling units where such blurred results emanated.

The court held that there are no mandatory requirements for the transmission of results, citing a Federal High Court Judgement on the matter which had not been appealed.

On the issue of the alleged civil forfeiture of $460,000 to the US by Tinubu, the court held that the forfeiture was done on a civil matter of the United States as Tinubu has no criminal matter before the country.

The tribunal also dismissed a claim by Obi and LP that the election that produced Tinubu did not comply with the Electoral Act, 2022 because the results of the election were not transmitted in real-time to the INEC’s Results Viewing (IReV) portals.

According to the judgment, there is nowhere in the Electoral Act, that says election must be electronically transmitted for collation.

While pointing out that Section 14&18 of the Electoral Act provides for the use of the Bi-modal Verification Accreditation System (BVAS) for accreditation of voters, Justice Tsammani emphasized that the ” IReV is not a collation system”.

Overall, the court held that “this petition is unmeritorious,“

While ruling on Atiku’s petition, the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal struck out several paragraphs of his petition relied upon to push Tinubu out of office.

Also, several exhibits including witness statements he tendered to establish his allegations of irregularities, and malpractices against the February 25 presidential election were rejected and discountenanced by the Tribunal.

Delivering a ruling in some objections argued by Chief Wole Olanipekun SAN on behalf of Tinubu, Justice Moses Ugoh held that several parts of Atiku’s petition have no legs upon which they can stand and survive, hence, not competent.

The Tribunal said that the former Vice President made grievous allegations against Kogi State governor, Yahaya Bello and Chairman of Olamaboro Local Government of Kogi, Friday Adejoh but neglected to join them as respondents in the petition.

Justice Ugoh held that failure to join the governor who was accused of electoral fraud was fatal to the petition because the governor was denied the opportunity to defend himself as required by law.

The Tribunal dismissed the allegations of overvoting all over Nigeria by the petitioner adding that such pleadings run foul of the law because the specific places where the alleged overvoting took place were not mentioned.

Atiku’s petition was also faulted on the ground that it introduced several facts and allegations in unlawful ways that caught the respondents unaware adding that the tactic employed was unfair and and made him clever by half.

Among the offending new facts said to have been wrongfully introduced by Atiku were the allegations of a criminal conviction, certificate forgery, and dual citizenship of Guinea made against Tinubu outside the mode of filing a petition.

Justice Stephen Jonah Adah who read another ruling on objections against the petition expunged several documents tendered by Atiku on the ground that the exhibits were made during the pendency of the petition.

Also, the evidence of several key witnesses of Atiku were expunged from the Court record having been made in manners not known to law.

The Tribunal held that the wrongful mode adopted by the PDP’s presidential candidate in the construction of the petition made several paragraphs of the petition table for striking out for want of merit.

In the final judgement, the chairman of the Tribunal Justice Haruna Tsamani dismissed all three petitions for lack of merit.

In a unanimous judgment, the court upheld the election of Tinubu and his Vice Kashim Shetima.

Justice Tsamani said, “This petition accordingly lacks merit. I affirm the return of Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the duly elected President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

“The parties are to bear their cost,” the court held.