Obi, Atiku Head to Supreme Court to Challenge Tribunal Judgement

The Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) has dismissed petitions filed by both candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abibakar and Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, to overturn the election of President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in the last February 25 poll.

The Tribunal Chairman, Justice Haruna Tsamani said both petitions lack merit, and returned Tinubu as the duly elected president.

Both Atiku Abubakar of the PDP and Peter Obi of the Labour Party had rejected the verdict, and said they were heading to the Supreme Court.

Atiku’s lead counsel, Chief Chris Uche, told newsmen after the ruling said he had been instructed by his client to approach the apex court.

The PDP in a separate reaction, said the judgement was against reason, facts and evidence presented by its lawyers before the Tribunal, as well as relevant electoral laws, guidelines, regulations and Nigerian constitutions.

According to the party, the judgement was generous in technicalities, but short in delivering substantial justice

It asks Nigerians to be alert, calm and united as it continues to ensure that their votes count.

Also, the Labour Party’s legal adviser, Kehinde Edun, said they would challenge the ruling in the Supreme Court.

Rejecting the judgement, he faulted the tribunal for rejecting the testimonies of 10 out of the party’s 13 witnesses, saying this weakened their case.

Peter obi also warned that litigants who feel dissatisfied with the outcome of their cases in court may resort to self-help.

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Earlier, the presidential poll petitions tribunal has knocked out most of the grounds in the petitions of the PDP and Labour Party against the results of the February 25 poll.

The Tribunal rejected the claim that a candidate must win in two third of 36 states and also in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) before he or she could be declared winner of a presidential poll.

The tribunal chairman, Justice Haruna Tsamani said the constitution did not give FCT a different status from the 36 states in the tabulation of votes obtained by a candidate in the presidential poll.

The Tribunal also ruled that peter obi failed to prove its claim of widespread irregularities in the conduct of the February 25 presidential elections.

For instance, the Tribunal said that Peter Obi failed to identify some of the polling units where the alleged malpractices took place.

The Tribunal explained that Peter Obi who claimed to have won the majority of the lawful votes cast in the poll, could not state the number of lawful votes cast for him.

Another ground of petitions dismissed was that Tinubu was convicted in United States for a drug related offence.

The Tribunal said there were no record of criminal arrest or conviction of president Tinubu in the US, adding that fine imposed on Tinubu was over a civil forfeiture proceed, and not criminal.

But the tribunal dismissed the petition of the APC that Peter Obi was not qualify to contest in the poll, because he joined Labour Party few days to the party’s primaries, instead of the mandatory 30 days.