Nigerians from all walks of life are excitedly anticipating the live broadcast of the Tribunal hearings from the Court of Appeal in Abuja, the nation’s capital.
President Bola Tinubu’s statement that Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP), and the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) won the 2023 presidential election is being contested.
The APC’s petition contesting Obi’s membership in the LP was also ruled incompetent by the court. According to Justice Abba, political party membership is a private matter.
The Tribunal also discussed the non-joinder of Atiku Abubakar, who finished second, and questioned how Obi & LP’s appeal could be decided in an efficient manner without including the candidate who came in second.
whereas underlining a claim made by the respondents that Obi’s petition only made general allegations of numerous irregularities without providing the specifics and the voting places.
According to Justice Abba Mohammed, it would be wrong to omit to mention the locations of anomalies in a presidential election that took place in 176,866 voting places across 774 Local Government Areas.
He said that the petitioners’ claims were simply generalizations.
“Pleading must set out material facts and particulars. In the instant petition, there was no effort to prove specific allegations, particulars of complaints,” said the Tribunal.
The Tribunal said, “The law is clear: If someone claims there were irregularities in a particular polling unit, that person must demonstrate the specific irregularities in that polling unit before that petition can be successful.”
The petitioners failed to identify the specific voting site where the election was allegedly rigged, according to the court, and they failed to provide information about the polling places where supposed complainants of irregularities are located.
“It was only in one instance that figures were given of alleged suppressed votes and we all know that elections are about figures,” it said.
“LP alleged that INEC reduced their scores and added it to APC votes but failed to supply particulars of what they actually scored before the said reductions, neither did they supply the polling units where it happened….”
