The APC also asked the election petition tribunal to dismiss the petition filed by the LP and Obi against the emergence of its (APC) presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, as president-elect in the February 25, 2023 election 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 to the party’s presidential primary to be validly sponsored by the party.
The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), has told the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) in Abuja that the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) was not validly sponsored by the party.
The APC also asked the election petition tribunal to dismiss the petition filed by the LP and Obi against the emergence of its (APC) presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, as president-elect in the February 25, 2023 election 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 to the party’s presidential primary to be validly sponsored by the party.
The APC added that the tribunal lacked the requisite jurisdiction to entertain pre-election complaints embedded in Obi’s petition.
The APC, which is the 4th respondent in Obi’s petition against the process and the outcome of the presidential election prayed the tribunal reject the petition in its notice of preliminary objection marked: CA/PEPC/03/2023 and filed at PEPC’s Secretariat, Monday night, by Thomas Ojo, a member of the party’s legal team led by Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, in Abuja.
The APC prayed the tribunal to dismiss Obi’s petition with substantial cost on the grounds that it lacked merit and was frivolous.
Recall that Obi, the 1st petitioner, and LP, the 2nd petitioner, had filed a suit against Nigeria’s electoral body, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the president-elect, Bola Tinubu, his running mate, Kashim Shettima and the APC as 1st to 4th respondents.
Obi, who came third with 6,101,533 votes in the presidential election and his political party are seeking the nullification of Tinubu’s candidature and his election victory.
In the petition marked CA/PEPC/03/2023 filed by Obi and LP’s lead counsel, Livy Ozoukwu (SAN), the petitioners argued that Tinubu “was not duly elected by majority of the lawful votes cast at the time of the election.”
According to the petitioners, there was rigging in 11 states, insisting that they would demonstrate this in the declaration of results based on the uploaded results, as they contended that 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.
Obi and the LP also 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 be 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 Feb. 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 Feb. 25.”
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that in its response to the petition on Monday, the APC argued that “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 APC further argued that Obi was not a member of LP as at the time of his alleged sponsorship, maintaining 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.”
According to the APC, all the PDP’s presidential candidates were screened on April 29, 2022, an exercise which Obi participated in and was cleared to contest while being a member of the party, adding that Obi/LP’s petition against Tinubu was incompetent since his name could not have been in LP’s register made available to INEC as at the time he joined the party.
The APC further argued that “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 (iti) 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.”
The ruling party told the court that Obi’s petition and the identified paragraphs were in breach of the mandatory provisions of Paragraph 4(1)(D) of the 1st Schedule to the Electoral Act, 2022, saying that Paragraphs 60—77 of the petition are non-specific, vague and/or nebulous and thereby incompetent contrary Paragraph 4(1)(d) of the Ist Schedule to the Electoral Act, 2022.
The party argued that the allegations of non-compliance must be made distinctly and proved on polling unit basis but none was specified or provided in any of the paragraphs of the petition, adding that “Paragraphs 59-60 of the petition disclose no identity or particulars of scores and polling units supplied in 18,088 units mentioned therein.”