Just two weeks after the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal confirmed President Bola Tinubu’s victory in the elections of February 25, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, the candidates for the PDP and Labour Party, filed 86 grounds for appeal with the Supreme Court to overturn the decision.
In separate appeals submitted on Tuesday, the two candidates argued that the PEPT decision should be overturned and that Tinubu’s election should be declared invalid.
Atiku’s appeal was predicated on 35 arguments in which he criticized the tribunal’s decision regarding the electronic transmission of results, the votes cast in the Federal Capital Territory, and other crucial tenets.
Obi, on the other hand, faulted the September 6 judgment on 51 grounds.
The PEPT led by Justice Haruna Tsammani had in a unanimous decision held that Atiku and Obi as well as other petitioners failed to substantiate their allegations against the poll conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
The justices stated that the documentary and oral evidence presented before them could not prove the claims of irregularities, corrupt practices, non-compliance with the electoral guidelines, and other allegations for which the petitioners had asked the court to void Tinubu’s election.
Atiku, who came second in the poll, had prayed the court to void Tinubu’s election and declare him as the authentic winner of the poll and Obi on the other hand, also said he was the rightful winner of the polls despite coming third in the exercise.
In the Notice of Appeal dated September 18, and filed by his lead counsel, Chief Chris Uche, SAN, the former Vice President, sought the nod of the apex court to allow the appeal and set aside the judgment of the lower court.
Atiku and the PDP are also asking the Supreme Court to determine that Tinubu was not duly elected by a majority of votes cast in the election and therefore,’’ the declaration and return of the 2nd respondent (Tinubu) by the 1st respondent (INEC) as the winner of the presidential election conducted on February 25, 2023 is unlawful, wrongful, unconstitutional, undue, null and void and of no effect whatsoever.’’
The appellants further want the court to determine that the 2nd respondent was at the time of the election not qualified to contest the said election.
Read Also: Benue: Tribunal affirms PDP’s Sen Moro’s victory, dismisses APC’s Onjeh’s petition
They are also praying the court to declare that Atiku, the 1st appellant, ‘’having scored the majority of lawful votes cast in 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 PDP flag bearer is seeking an order directing the electoral commission to conduct a run-off between him and Tinubu.
In the ground one of the appeal, Atiku held that the tribunal erred by refusing to uphold his argument on the compulsory electronic transmission of results as contained in the Electoral Act, 2022.
Obi in his notice of appeal filed by his lead counsel, Dr Livy Uzoukwu, SAN, is praying the apex court to, among other things, allow his appeal and set aside the ‘’perverse judgment’’ of the lower court.
Obi complained about the whole decision of the panel, particularly pages 3-327 of the judgment except the rulings in favour of the appellants.
He submitted that the tribunal justices reached a wrong conclusion when they held that the petitioners did not specify the particular polling units where the alleged irregularities and malpractices occurred, or specified the figures of the votes or scores which they alleged have been suppressed, deflated, or inflated.
Rather, he said the justices overlooked the fact of the appellants’ pleading that certain facts and documents were captured in a particular pleading by incorporation or reference did not amount to a concession that those facts were not pleaded.
He further explained that the appellants exercised their option of listing all the documents pleaded in the body of their petition by incorporation/reference, hence complied with the said paragraph 4(5((c) of the First Schedule to the Electoral Act, 2022, noting that a party should not be penalized for scrupulously complying with both statutory and judicial laws settled in Nigeria.
Obi and the LP disagreed with the court’s submission that paragraph 72 of their petition was vague, insisting that it constituted a complaint of over-voting in polling units in 13 states pleaded in the petition namely Ekiti, Oyo, Ondo, Taraba, Osun, Kano, Rivers, Borno, Katsina, Kwara, Gombe, Yobe and Niger States ‘’with full and specific itemization in the forensic report produced/tendered by the appellants which was unlawfully discountenanced by the court below.’’
In its ground seven, Obi affirmed that the justices also erred in law and occasioned a grave miscarriage of justice when they held that the onus was on the appellants to prove the 1st respondent failed to comply with the mandatory requirements of section 73(2) of the Electoral Act in the conduct of the questioned presidential poll.
