Atiku files petition against Tinubu, INEC, lists 7 Prayers
The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar has filed a petition to challenge the declaration of Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, as the winner of the presidential election that was held on February 25.
Vanguard reports that Atiku, in the petition, marked: CA/PEPC/05/2023, which he lodged before the Presidential Election Petition Court, PEPC, sitting at the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal, applied for the withdrawal of the Certificate of Return that was issued to Tinubu by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
-
-
-
- What does Trump’s second coming mean for Africa?2 weeks ago
He maintained that the declaration of Tinubu as the winner of the presidential election was “invalid by reason of non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022”.
Atiku, through his team of lawyers led by Mr Joe Kyari Gadzama, SAN, further argued that Tinubu’s election was invalid by reason of corrupt practices.
“The 2nd Respondent was not duly elected by a majority of lawful votes cast at the Election.
“The 2nd Respondent was at the time of the Election not qualified to contest the Election”, Atiku added while listing grounds he said the court should consider nullifying Tinubu’s election.
He prayed the court to declare him the winner of the presidential election, having secured the second-highest number of lawful votes cast at the election.
Meanwhile, Vanguard learned that Atiku’s legal team perfected the petition filing process at the Registry of the Court, late in the night on Tuesday.
It will be recalled that the Labour Party, LP, and its candidate, Mr. Peter Obi, had Monday night, also filed a petition before the court to void the declaration of Tinubu as the President-elect.
They prayed the court to hold that Tinubu was not legally qualified to contest the election, alleging that he was previously convicted 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.
Obi prayed the court to declare him as the candidate that secured the majority of the lawful votes cast with the required constitutional spread of 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.
In the alternative, he prayed the court to order a fresh poll, with the exclusion of both Tinubu and the APC, by virtue of their non-qualification to participate in the election.
It will be recalled that INEC had on March 1, announced Tinubu as the winner of the presidential poll, ahead of 17 other candidates that contested the election.
It declared that Tinubu scored a total of 8,794,726 votes to defeat Atiku who polled a total of 6,984,520 votes and Obi who came third with a total of 6,101,533 votes.
Grounds of the petition
Premium Times reports that Laying four bases for the petition, Atiku and the PDP said Mr Tinubu’s election “is invalid by reason of noncompliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022.”
Atiku also argued that INEC’s “failure to electronically transmit the election results in real-time” compromised the outcome of the presidential poll.
He added that the alleged substantial non-compliance with the law affected the result of the election, in that” Mr Tinubu “ought not to have been declared or returned as the winner of the election.”
Atiku further contended that INEC “wrongly returned” Mr Tinubu “as the winner of the election, allocating to him 8,794,726 votes while ascribing to him (Atiku) 6,984520 votes.”
He explained that contrary to INEC Chairman, Mr Yakubu’s repeated assurances in the build-up to the general elections to conduct the best election in Nigeria’s democratic history, the electoral umpire failed to electronically transmit results in real-time from polling units to INEC’s “electronic collation system and Results Viewing Portal (IReV)” using the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) machines.
He said “by reason of the foregoing, there could not have been any valid and lawful collation and announcement of the result of the election under the Electoral Act, without the prior electronic transmission from the polling units to INEC …IReV portal using the BVAS.”
The petitioners said INEC failed to comply with Section 66 of the Electoral Act which is incorporated with Section 134 of the Nigerian constitution. They argue that the law provides for “geographical spread” which must be met by the winner of the election.
Atiku equally premised his petition on the ground that the margin of lead – 1,810,206 votes – was less than the number of Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) collected in “the polling units where elections were cancelled and did not hold across the country. ”
Consequently, Atiku argued that INEC’s declaration of Mr Tinubu as the winner of the poll was “hasty, premature and wrongful.”
The petitioners further accused INEC of manipulating votes as Electoral officials “suppressed” Atiku’s votes, crediting Messrs Tinubu and Obi with the said stolen votes.
Mr Tinubu is also said not to have been elected by a majority of lawful votes cast at the poll.
The petitioners also said Mr Tinubu at the time of the election was not qualified to vie for the presidency.
Atiku’s Prayers
In seeking to upturn Mr Tinubu’s victory, Atiku set out seven prayers.
He urged the court to determine that Mr Tinubu was “not duly elected by a majority of lawful votes cast, and therefore the president-elect’s victory “is unlawful, wrongful, unconstitutional…null and void.”
Atiku prayed the court to determine that Mr Tinubu at the time of the election was not qualified to contest the said election.
“That it may be determined that the return of the 2nd Respondent (Mr Tinubu) by the 1st respondent (INEC) was wrongful, unlawful, undue, null and void having not satisfied the requirements of the Electoral Act and constitution…which mandatorily requires” Mr Tinubu “to score bot less than one quarter (25%) of the lawful votes cast at the election in each of at least two-thirds of all the states in the federal and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.”
He urged the court to declare him the winner of the presidential election, as he “scored the majority of lawful votes cast at the presidential election.
In the alternative, Atiku asked the court to make an “order directing” INEC “to conduct a second election (run-off) between” him and Mr Tinubu.
“That the election to the office of the President of Nigeria held on 25 February, 2023, be nullified and a fresh election be ordered,” the petitioners prayed.
The FULL PETITION:
