The Labour Party has rejected the judgment of the Presidential Election Petition Court upholding the declaration of Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, APC, as winner of the February 25, 2023 election.
National Publicity Secretary of the party, Obiora Ifoh, made the party’s position known in Abuja, shortly after the court announced its decision.
Ifoh said: “The Labour Party watched with dismay and trepidation the dismissal of petitions by the five-man panel of the Presidential Election Petition Court led by Justice Haruna Tsammani today and we reject the outcome of the judgment in its entirety because justice was not served and it did not reflect the law and the desire of the people.
“Nigerians were witnesses to the electoral robbery that took place on February 25, 2023, which was globally condemned but the Tribunal in its wisdom refused to accept the obvious.
“What is at stake is democracy and we will not relent until the people will prevail.
We salute the doggedness of our team of lawyers who fearlessly exposed the wrath in our system.”
The Tribunal had dismissed Peter Obi’s petition as follows:
*25 Percent in FCT:
The Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal has ruled that the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) does not hold a higher status than other states in the country.
Justice Haruna Tsammani, the lead judge of the five-man panel declared this during the tribunal’s sitting on Wednesday in Abuja.
According to him, Section 134 (1) and (2) of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria (as amended) stipulates that a presidential candidate must attain or score a majority of votes cast in a presidential election, where two or more candidates are involved, and at least 25% in two-thirds of the 36 States and FCT to meet the constitutional requirement to be declared as duly elected as President of Nigeria.
* Drug Trafficking Suit Against Tinubu:
The lead judge of the Presidential Election Petition Court, PEPC, Justice Haruna Tsamani has dismissed the drug trafficking claims against Bola Ahmed Tinubu by the Labour Party (LP)
It could be recalled that LP had claimed that Tinubu was involved in a drug trafficking case in which he forfeited $460,000 to the United States of America via a case determined by a US District Court.
The judge agreed with the submission of Tinubu’s counsel, citing a letter issued by the US Embassy in 2003.
The allegation is one of the grounds upon which the petition of the LP was instituted against the declaration of Tinubu as president-elect after Nigeria’s February 25 presidential election.
The embassy had communicated with Tafa Balogun, the Inspector-General of Police at the time, that a records check conducted to establish Tinubu’s involvement in drug crimes came back negative.
The court proceeded to read the contents of the letter from the US embassy in Nigeria.
Obi and the Labour Party failed to identify the specific polling units where those blurred results emanated from.”
*Claims of Massive Vote Rigging:
The Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) has started reading judgment of Peter Obi’s petition alleging massive vote rigging in favour of the declared winner, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
According to the judgment on the petition of massive rigging read by Justice Bello, he said Obi and the Labour Party failed to list the specific polling units where the rigging took place.
Recall that Obi, in one of his petitions against Tinubu’s declaration as winner of the 2023 presidential election, averred that 18,000 or 11% blurred polling unit levels results were uploaded on IRev. He contended that since the blurred results formed part of the scores attributed to all the candidates, including Tinubu, it would be dubious to announce a winner under such circumstance.
But Justice Bello, in his judgment, said Obi and the Labour Party failed to identify the specific polling units where those blurred results emanated from.
The Judge stated that polling units where the rigging took place were not shown in the petition of Obi and the Labour Party. He said the obligation of proving the specificity of the rigging and where it took place rests on the petitioners – Obi and the Labour Party.
He added that the petitioner did not also present any sheet or forensic document to show the states listed in certain paragraphs on rigged polling units.
