The electoral victory of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the candidate of the All progressives Party (APC) in the February 25th presidential election was on Wednesday upheld by the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal (PEPT) as the tribunal struck out the petitions of the Labour Party candidate, Peter Obi who challenged the victory of the president at the polls.
The tribunal judges led by Justice Tsammani struck out about 17 paragraphs of the petition by Peter Obi and the Labour Party (LP) for containing vague and generic allegations.
In a ruling on some motions filed by the respondents to the petition, the court held that in the affected paragraphs, the petitioners made allegations of malpractices and irregularities in the conduct of the election, but failed to provide specific details in support of the allegations.
The court noted, for instance, that the petitioners failed to show which polling units the malpractices alleged occurred; the number of votes affected; and their polling unit agents who reported the alleged irregularities and malpractices, among others.
The tribunal, however, rejected the respondents’ argument that Obi was not a member of the LP at the time of the election, noting that membership is an internal affair of a political party, which has the sole power to determine who its members are.
The court held that it did not lie with the respondents to question Obi’s membership of the LP.
The court also faulted the contention that Atiku Abubakar and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who came second in the election, were necessary parties that ought to be joined in the petition.
Respondents to the petition are INEC, President Bola Tinubu, Vice President Kashim Shettma and the APC.
