October 23, (THEWILL) – The Justice John Inyang Okoro-led seven-member panel of the Supreme Court, has reserved judgement on the appeal filed by Peter Obi, Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), seeking to void the judgement of the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC), Abuja, which affirmed the election victory of President Bola Tinubu in the February 25 Presidential Election.
The apex court adjourned the case for judgement after taking the arguments of lawyers to parties in the suit.
THEWILL reports that a five-member panel of Justices, led by Haruna Tsammani, on September 6, dismissed the joint petition of the LP and its Presidential candidate, Peter Obi, and affirmed the election victory of President Tinubu as winner of the 2023 Presidential election.
Dissatisfied with the outcome of the judgment, Obi approached the supreme court to challenge the judgement.
Obi had in his appeal, argued that the PEPC panel erred in law and thereby reached a wrong conclusion when it dismissed his petition.
He alleged that the panel wrongly evaluated the proof of evidence he adduced before it and occasioned a grave miscarriage of justice when it held that he did not specify polling units where irregularities occurred during the election.
Obi faulted the PEPC for dismissing their case on the premise that they did not specify the figures of votes or scores that were allegedly suppressed or inflated in favour of President Tinubu and the APC.
He accused the Justice Tsammani-led panel of erring in law when it relied on paragraphs 4(1) (d) (2) and 54 of the First Schedule to the Electoral Act 2022, to strike out paragraphs of the petition.
He told the apex court that the panel unjustly dismissed his allegation that INEC uploaded 18,088 blurred results on its IReV portal.
Obi further alleged that the lower court ignored his allegation that certified true copies of documents that INEC issued to his legal team, comprised of 8,123 blurred results that contained blank A4 papers, pictures and images of unknown persons, purporting same to be the CTC of polling units results of the presidential election.
“The learned justices of the court below erred in law and occasioned a miscarriage of justice when they concluded that he failed to establish the allegation of corrupt practices and over-voting”, Obi said, adding that it was wrong for the lower court to rely on the legal principle of estoppel to dismiss his contention that INEC bypassed its own regulations when it refused to electronically transmit results of the election from polling units to the IReV.
Obi insisted that the PEPC overlooked evidence that established that President Tinubu was previously indicted and fined the sum of $460,000 in the USA over his involvement in a drug-related case.
During proceedings at the apex court on Monday, Obi’s lead lawyer, Livy Uzoukwu (SAN), urged the court to allow his client’s appeal.
On his part, Tinubu’s lawyers, led by Wole Olanipekun (SAN), argued that Obi’s suit lacked merit and urged the court to dismiss the appeal.
Also, the APC through its lawyer, Akin Olujinmi and the INEC, asked the court to uphold the judgement of the Presidential Election Petition Court affirming Tinubu’s election.
The panel of the Supreme Court said it would communicate the judgement date to all the parties.
