September 6, (THEWILL) – The Presidential Election Petitions Court (PEPC), has dismissed allegations of widespread irregularities in the 2023 presidential election.
The Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, had alleged in his petition before the court that the 2023 presidential election was rigged in favour of President Bola Tinubu.
Specifically, Obi had alleged that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), suppressed his votes and added them to the votes of the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Bola Tinubu.
In the lead judgement delivered on Wednesday, by Justice Abba Mohammed, the court held that the Petitioner (Peter Obi), failed to provide the necessary evidence to substantiate his claims.
Justice Mohammed, who emphasised the importance of providing material facts and particulars to back allegations said, “It was only in one instance that figures were given of alleged suppressed votes and we all know that elections are about figures.
“LP alleged that INEC reduced their scores and added it to APC votes, but failed to supply particulars of what they actually scored before the said reductions, neither did they supply the polling units where it happened.”
The court noted that whereas Obi and the LP, insisted that the election was rigged in 18,088 polling units across the federation, they were unable to state the locations of the said polling units.
“Though the Petitioners alleged that the election was marred by irregularities, they, however, failed to give specific details of where the alleged infractions took place”, said Justice Mohammed.
More so, it held that the Petitioners were unable to state the figures they claimed were reduced from election results they garnered in different states of the federation, especially in Ondo, Oyo, Rivers, Yobe, Borno, Tabara, Osun and Lagos state.
It held that the Petitioners equally failed to state the polling units where over-voting occurred or the exact figures of unlawful votes that were credited to Tinubu by the INEC.
It stressed that though Obi and LP said they would rely on spreadsheets, as well as forensic report and expert analysis of their expert witnesses, they failed to attach the documents to the petition or serve same on the Respondents, as required by the law.
Consequently, the court struck out paragraphs 9, 60, 61, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 76, 77, 78, 83 and 89 of Obi’s petition.
