The Presidential Election Petitions Court is set to commence the pre-hearing of petitions arising from the 2023 Presidential Election held on the 25th of February.
The Tribunal seating in Abuja, will is hear petitions challenging the declaration of President-elect Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), had on March 1 declared Tinubu the President-Elect on the grounds that his party scored the majority of votes cast in the polls.
Tinubu polled 8.8 million to defeat Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who scored 6.9 million, Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) who amassed 6.1 million and 15 others.
Disputing the Result, People’s Democratic party PDP Presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar and his Labour Party counterpart Mr. Peter Obi filed separate petitions seeking orders to annul the election or declare them the winners of the polls.
Atiku who anchored his seven prayers on five grounds, asked the Presidential Election Tribunal to declare him the president-elect.
Alternatively, Atiku urged the court to cancel the election and order a fresh election due to alleged irregularities in thousands of polling units.
In their petition, Atiku and the PDP argued that as of March 1 when Tinubu was declared the winner of the election, the entire results and accreditation data from polling units had not been transmitted and uploaded by INEC.
The Labour Party Presidential candidate Mr Peter Obi, who came third in the election, alleged that the election was characterised by various irregularities including the non-qualification of Tinubu and his running mate, Kashim Shettima to contest the election.
He also alleged that Tinubu failed to win the majority of the lawful votes cast in the election, and just as he could not secure one-quarter of the lawful votes cast in the FCT.
N.O
