The Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal (PEPT) ruled on Wednesday that the Labour Party (LP)’s petition of irregularities in the 2023 presidential election is generic.
“Pleading must set out material facts and particulars. In the instant petition, there was no effort to prove specific allegations, particulars of complaints,” the Tribunal ruled on Wednesday in Abuja.
The law is clear that where someone alleges irregularities in a particular polling unit, such person must prove the particular irregularities in that polling unit before that petition can succeed, the Tribunal added.
According to the Tribunal, the petitioners did not prove the particular polling units where the election did not take place nor did they specify particulars of polling units where there are alleged complainants of irregularities.
“It was only in one instance that figures were given of alleged suppressed votes and we all know that elections are about figures,” it maintained.
LP had alleged that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) reduced their scores and added it to All Progressives Congress (APC)’s votes.
But the court said LP failed to supply particulars of what they actually scored before the said reductions, neither did they supply the polling units where it happened.
On another leg, the tribunal also ruled that the LP and its presidential candidate Peter Obi failed to prove that President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was convicted for money laundering in the United States.
The five-man panel led by Justice Haruna Tsammani ruled that no record of criminal arrest or conviction was established against Tinubu by the petitioners – Obi and the LP.
Tinubu had allegedly forfeited $460,000 in the US over three decades ago and the petitioners alleged that he was involved in drug trafficking and money laundering.
However, the Tribunal ruled that no criminal charge was filed against Tinubu in the US and that the APC candidate did not go through a criminal trial in America.
The Tribunal said the petitioners failed to prove that the allegation at the United States District Court, Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division where the forfeiture occurred was a criminal case.
Justice Tsammani said the ex-governor of Lagos State was not convicted of any crime or any criminal activity and no sentence of imprisonment or fine was imposed on him.
He said according to Section 137 of the constitution, Tinubu is not disqualified from contesting the presidential poll.
The Tribunal also ruled that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was at liberty to decide the mode of transmission of election results during the presidential election on February 25, 2023.
The panel said according to Sections 52 and 65 of the Electoral Act 2022, INEC was at liberty to prescribe the manner in which election results were transmitted during the poll.
The Tribunal consequently dismissed the petition of the LP and Obi, which argued that the victory of Tinubu be annulled on the basis on the “failure” of the commission’s Results Viewing Portal (IReV) to upload election results electronically in real time.
The Tribunal also dismissed Obi and LP’s petitions on 25 per cent votes of Tinubu in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), saying that Abuja is like other states.
Similarly, the court ruled that the LP and its presidential candidate Peter Obi, failed to establish that Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) deliberately refused to promptly upload polling unit results to its Results Viewing Portal (IReV) in order to manipulate the results in favour of President Bola Tinubu of the APC.
“The petitioner made the allegation of non-compliance a substantial part of their case. By the provisions of Section 135(2) of the Electoral Act, they are required to show how such non compliance substantially affected them. If they fail to show same, the petition fails.”
The petitioner also made allegations of suppression of results, overvoting and inflation of votes when they said that from the totality of the evidence, the elections are invalid by reason of corrupt practices.
In Rivers and Benue states, during the collation, the petitioner alleged that INEC embarked on massive misrepresentations by uploading fictitious and incorrect votes, and that if things were done properly, they would have won the elections massively in those states.
According to the Tribunal, apart from figures stated in those two states, the other allegations were nebulous.
Apart from stating material particular, other crimes must be pleaded and clearly set out, the court ruled. “The proof must be beyond reasonable doubt. The petitioner must produce two sets of results, one genuine, one false.”
On the contention that the prerequisite for presidential candidates to be proclaimed the election’s victor is that they must secure 25% of votes cast in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), the court rejected LP and Obi’s submission..
According to the tribunal chairman, Justice Haruna Simon Tsammani, there is no special status attached to the FCT and that it is equal to every other State in Nigeria.
He, therefore, declared the petition as “unmeritorious”.
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.
The ruling was made in response to a petition filed by the Labour Party and its presidential candidate Peter Obi, who challenged the election of President Bola Tinubu.
Obi had argued that Tinubu should be disqualified from being president because he did not win 25% of the votes cast in the FCT.
In all, the tribunal struck out the petition filed by LP and Obi against President Bola Tinubu.
