March 23, (THEWILL) – The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 presidential election, Atiku Abubakar, has filed a petition against the president-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressive Congress (APC), and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
THEWILL reports that the former Vice President filed his petition before the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) Abuja, on Tuesday evening.
Earlier, Peter Obi of the Labour party (LP), Allied Peoples Movement (APM), Action Alliance (AA) and Action Peoples Party (APP), separately instituted petitions against the 2023 presidential election results announced by INEC, calling for either outright cancellation of polls or rerun and return of the candidate with the “accurate” highest votes cast.
On Tuesday night, a spokesman for the Atiku Campaign Organisation, Daniel Bwala, tweeted about their petition, expressing hope that Tinubu’s victory would be overturned.
“The petition is in. Let the legal fireworks begin. Those who say the presidential election in Nigeria has never been annulled by the courts, therefore it will not; my request for you is to get your popcorn and bottle of drinks, sit back and watch. The world is watching,” Bwala tweeted.
Marked CA/PEPC/05/2023, the petition was filed by a team of lawyers led by Joe Gazama. The former Vice President asked the court to declare him the winner of the February 25 election or order a rerun between him and the President-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Atiku, who polled 6,984,520 votes in the presidential poll, claimed that Tinubu was not qualified to contest the election.
The petitioner submitted that Tinubu’s declaration as the winner of the February 25 poll was “invalid by reason of non-compliance with the provisions of the electoral act, 2022”.
“The 2nd respondent (Tinubu) was not duly elected by the 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 said.
The PDP candidate wants the Tribunal to nullify Tinubu’s victory and withdraw the certificate of return issued to him.
He prayed the court to declare him the winner, having secured the second-highest number of lawful votes at the election.
“That it may be determined that the President-elect was not duly elected by the majority of lawful votes cast in the election and therefore, the declaration and return of him by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the winner of the presidential election is unlawful, wrong, unconstitutional, and void and of no effect whatsoever,” the petition reads in part.
It specifically wants the court to determine that the return of Tinubu by INEC, “was unlawful, having not satisfied the requirements of the Electoral Act 2022 and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended), which mandatorily requires that he to scores nothing less than one quarter (25 percent) of the lawful votes cast at the election in each of at least two-thirds of all the States in the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
“That it should be determined that Tinubu was, at the time of the election, not qualified to contest the said election.
“That it Should be determined that Atiku Abubakar, having scored the majority of lawful votes cast at the presidential election, be returned as the winner of the said election and be sworn in as the duly elected President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
In the alternative, the petition asked the court for an order directing INEC to conduct a second election (run-off) between Tinubu and Atiku.
As a further alternative, that the election to the office of the President of Nigeria held on 25th February 2023 be nullified and a fresh election (re-run) be ordered.
