Nigeria’s Electoral Umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC has urged the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal in Abuja to dismiss the petition filed by Labour Party and its Presidential candidate Mr. Peter Obi challenging the victory of President-Elect Ahmed Tinubu, of the All Progressives Congress APC.
The Labour Party, in its petition among others, argued that, the Presidential election was characterized by manipulations and rigging.
The LP asserted that, INEC violated its rules by not uploading results and electronically transmit them as required by the electoral act.
According to a reply by INEC at the Tribunal, the reliefs sought by Labour Party and Mr. Peter Obi should not be granted.
The Electoral umpire urged the court to strike out Obi’s petition for being incompetent, vague and ambiguous.
The Commission also disagreed with the petitioners over their claim that Tinubu was not elected by the majority of lawful votes cast.
According to INEC, the LP Presidential candidate cannot be returned as elected, having not polled majority of the lawful votes cast at the election and secured one-quarter of the votes cast at the election in at least two-thirds of all states in the federation and the FCT.
INEC said the Labour Party was not well represented in the election as the party did not have polling agents in all the polling units across Nigeria.
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