The Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has initiated legal proceedings against the declared winner of the February 25th presidential election, Bola Tinubu, by filing a petition at the presidential election tribunal. The petition was submitted to the Abuja court of appeal, which also serves as the presidential election petition tribunal. Obi’s challenge questions Tinubu’s eligibility to contest the election and seeks to nullify his victory.
Bola Tinubu was declared the winner of the presidential election after securing 8,794,726 votes, while Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had 6,984,520 votes, and Peter Obi of the Labour Party polled 6,101,533 votes. In the petition, Obi’s lawyer, Livy Ozoukwu, argued that Tinubu was not qualified to contest the election and was not duly elected by a majority of lawful votes cast during the election.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Tinubu, Shettima Kashim (the vice president-elect), and the All Progressives Congress (APC) are respondents to the petition, with Obi and the LP as the petitioners. The petitioners seek a determination that all the votes recorded for Tinubu in the election were wasted votes due to the non-qualification of the president-elect and Shettima.
Additionally, the petitioners are asking the tribunal to determine that Tinubu failed to score one-quarter of the votes cast at the presidential election in the federal capital territory, Abuja, and was, therefore, not entitled to be declared and returned as the winner of the presidential election. Consequently, the petitioners are seeking an order cancelling the election and compelling INEC to conduct a fresh election in which Tinubu, Shettima, and the APC shall not participate.
