Candidate of the Labour Party, LP, Peter Obi on Tuesday, tendered in evidence, 191 additional exhibits from 157 Local Government Areas, LGAs, in the country.
Among the exhibits, which the Presidential Election Petition Court, PEPC, sitting in Abuja, admitted in evidence, recorded from the Result Viewing Portal, IRev, of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, which the petitioners obtained from five states to prove their allegation that the result of the presidential election that was held on February 25, was rigged.
A breakdown of the documents the petitioners tendered before the court, showed that the IReV reports from 101 LGAs, were obtained from five states; Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Ogun, Ekiti, and Rivers.
While IReV reports were tendered for 21 LGAs in Adamawa, that of Akwa Ibom was for 25 LGAs, Ogun was for 20 LGAs, and Ekiti and Rivers were for 16 and 19 LGAs, respectively.
Other electoral documents the court admitted in evidence on Tuesday, were certified true copies of INEC Forms EC40Gs; EC40G1; EC40GPU, which were reports of various polling units where elections did not hold.
The reports spanned 56 LGAs in four states of the federation, namely; Niger (10 LGAs); Osun (15 LGAs); Edo (15 LGAs); and Sokoto (11 LGAs).
The petitioners tendered the exhibits in evidence, through a member of their legal team, Peter Afoba, SAN.
However, all the Respondents in the case challenged the admissibility of all the Exhibits in evidence, saying they would in their final address, adduce reasons behind their objections.
Cited as 1st to 4th Respondents in the matter are; INEC, President Bola Tinubu, Vice President Kashim Shettima, and the All Progressives Congress, APC.
It will be recalled that the LP candidate who came third in the election approached the court to challenge the declaration of President Tinubu of the APC as the winner of the presidential contest.
Obi, in the joint petition he filed with his party, maintained that President Tinubu was not the valid winner of the election.
The petitioners, in their case marked: CA/PEPC/03/2023, equally contended that President Tinubu was not qualified to participate in the presidential poll.
According to the petitioners, at the time Tinubu’s running mate, Shettima, became the Vice Presidential candidate, he was still the nominated candidate of the APC for the Borno Central Senatorial election.
The petitioners further challenged Tinubu’s eligibility to contest the presidential election, alleging that he was previously indicted and fined the sum of $460,000.00 by the United States District Court, Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, in Case No: 93C 4483, for an offence involving dishonesty and drug trafficking.
On the ground that the election was invalid because of corrupt practices and non-compliance with the provision of the Electoral Act, 2022, the petitioners argued that INEC acted in breach of its Regulations and Guidelines.
The Petitioners argued that the electoral body was in the course of the conduct of the presidential poll, mandatorily required to prescribe and deploy technological devices for the accreditation, verification, continuation, and authentication of voters and their particulars as contained in its Regulations.
They are, therefore, praying for the court to among other things, declare that all the votes recorded for Tinubu and the APC, were wasted votes owing to his non-qualification/disqualification.
“That it is determined that based on 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% of the votes cast in at least 2/3 of the States of the Federation, and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, and satisfied the constitutional requirements to be declared the winner of the 25th February 2023 presidential election.
“That it be determined that the 2nd Respondent having failed to score one-quarter of the votes cast at the presidential election in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja was not entitled to be declared and returned as the winner of the presidential election held on 25th February 2023.
In the alternative, the petitioners, want an order cancelling the election and compelling INEC to conduct a fresh election in which Tinubu, Shettima, and the APC, listed as 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Respondents, respectively, shall not participate.
They urged the court to declare that since Tinubu was not duly elected by a majority of the lawful votes cast in the election, therefore, his return as the winner of the presidential election, was unlawful, unconstitutional, and of no effect whatsoever.
In a further alternative prayer, the petitioners want the court to hold that the presidential election was void on the ground that it was not conducted substantially by the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022, and the 1999 Constitution, as amended.
Likewise, they applied for an order, “canceling the presidential election conducted on 25th February 2023 and mandating the 1st Respondent to conduct a fresh election for the President, the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
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