August 27,2023.
Thank you for reading this post, don’t forget to subscribe!
As the entire world awaits the outcomes of the three critical petitions instituted by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Labour Party (LP) and the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) together with their presidential candidates, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Mr. Peter Obi and the Delta-born Princess Chichi Ojei respectively, against the declaration by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the winner of the February 25, 2023 presidential election in the country, Sunday Vanguard, in this report, reviews the separate cases of the petitioners before the Justice Haruna Simon Tsamani-led Presidential Election Petition Tribunal in Abuja and the separate defenses by Tinubu, his political party — All Progressives Congress (APC) – and INEC to each of the petitions.
The tribunal, by constitutional provision, has up till September 16, 2023, about three weeks from now, to deliver its judgment in the cases. As the clock ticks, the high-profile cases have not stopped captivating public attention with all manners of allegations of malpractices flying from all sides against all parties, thereby fueling series of misinformation cum disinformation in both the social and conventional media against virtually all the contenders including the judiciary which has the final say over the cases.
Background
At about 4.00am on March 1, 2023, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the winner of the February 25, 2023 presidential poll on the grounds that his party—the All Progressives Congress (APC)—scored the highest votes cast at the poll and that he secured not less than one quarter of the votes cast in each of at least two-thirds of all the states in the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) as required by law.
In the results announced on March 1, 2023, Tinubu polled 8,794,726 votes representing 36.61% of the total votes cast at the election to emerge victorious. Atiku who came second scored 6,984,520 representing 29.07% of the votes cast, while Obi scored 6,101,533 representing 25.40% of the votes cast during the disputed election. Rabiu Kwankwaso of the NNPP came fourth with 1,496,687 representing 6.40% of the votes cast. Princess Chichi Ojei, the only female presidential candidate in the election was not near the first four as she pooled a lean 25,961.
Deadline
But within 21 days of INEC announcing the results, five political parties with their presidential candidates approached the registry of the Presidential Election Petition Court to challenge the election outcome.
Under the electoral law, political parties and their candidates have within 21 days of INEC announcing the results to file their petition at the registry of the Appeal Court.
The aggrieved parties who met the deadline included the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) with its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar and the Labour Party, with its candidate, Peter Obi.
The rest were the Action Alliance (AA) with its presidential candidate, Solomon Okangbuan, the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) with its presidential candidate, Chichi Ojei and the Action Alliance with its presidential candidate, Major Hamza Al-Mustapha.(www.naija247news.com)
