THE Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) has dismissed the case filed by the Labour Party’s Presidential candidate, Peter Gregory Obi, against the election victory of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
According to media reports, in a five-hour marathon reading of the panel’s ruling on the substantive case filed by Peter Obi, Justice Haruna Tsammani said the case lacked material facts and was unmeritorious, adding that 10 of the 13 witnesses who gave evidence were rejected for not being frontloaded with the petition, thus violating section 285 of the Nigerian constitution, section 137(7) of the Electoral Act 2022.
Justice Tsammani said under section 285 of the Nigerian constitution, section 137(7) of the Electoral Act 2022, and other provisions, every witness statement on oath must be filed along with the petition within 21 days.
He said that based on the Supreme Court authority, once the 21-day window for filing an election petition lapses, the content of the petition cannot be amended.
The PEPC also rejected the reports of forensic analyses tendered by the three witnesses of the Labour Party for either being made during the pendency of the case or made by an interested party who would benefit from the outcome of the petitions.
The court rejected the European Union report on the February 25 Presidential election because they were not tendered by an official of the body, which is the author and has custody of the document.
The court struck out issues raised by Obi and his party to disqualify Tinubu and Shettima and nullify their election, ruling that both Tinubu and Shettima were qualified to contest the election.
Justice Tsammani said INEC’s failure to upload the result of the election on iRev did not invalidate the election as INEC can do so anyhow it wants, noting that both the Electoral Act and INEC regulations provide for manual collation of results.
Justice Tsammani, quoting previous court orders, said INEC cannot be compelled to transmit the results of the election electronically.
On the $460,000 alleged narcotics money forfeited by Tinubu in the US in 1993, the tribunal said the Illinois case was a civil forfeiture case, not a criminal one, stating that in the evidence before the court, Tinubu was not convicted, sentenced, arraigned, and did not take any plea before the court in the US.
Justice Tsammani said Obi and his party failed to show substantial non-compliance with the Electoral Act by INEC in declaring Tinubu as the winner of the February 25 election.
Justice Tsammani also rubbished the position of Obi that Tinubu must win 25 per cent of the votes in the FCT. He said the view presents a parochial interpretation of the Nigerian constitution.
