The presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi has asked the Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja to declare him the president-elect, in the belief that he scored the majority of the lawful votes during the February 25 election in the country.
He asked that in alternating, the entire election should be nullified and a fresh election conducted.
The Labour Party candidate filed the petition challenging the victory of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 25 February election, alleging that the election was characterized 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 Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.
According to Peter Obi, in the petition, the election was conducted in substantial non-compliance with the provision of the law.
The petition contains a total of five prayers divided into two categories – two main prayers and three alternative prayers.
The petitioners filed their case today, March 21, beating the 21-day deadline that began to count from March 1 when INEC declared the winner of the election.
INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, who announced the final results in the early hours of 1 March in Abuja, said that Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) came second in the election. Atiku polled a total of 6,984,520 votes in the election, according to the results declared by INEC.
Peter Obi of the Labour Party came behind Atiku with a total of 6,101,533 votes, while Rabiu Kwankwaso of the NNPP came fourth with 1,496,687 votes.
Obi’s legal team, which filed the petition against the outcome of the election is led by Livy Uzoukwu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).
Uzoukwu led Atiku’s legal team when the former vice president unsuccessfully challenged the victory of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019.
