Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State has declared that no one can deprive President-elect Bola Tinubu of his mandate. Umahi made the statement while dedicating the All Progressives Congress’ victory across Nigeria to God. He advised those seeking to overturn the victories at the tribunal that they are wasting their time and resources. Even The Courts Cannot Stop Tinubu’s Mandate – Gov. Umahi, keep reading.Â
The governor stressed that the APC deserved all it got at the polls, and extreme politics should be de-emphasized in Nigeria for a better future. He said that those attempting to rob Tinubu of his mandate should think twice, as no power or force can remove him from being the President of Nigeria.
Meanwhile, a petition filed by Obi and the LP challenging the victory of Bola Tinubu as President-elect of the APC, and his running mate Kashim Shettima as Vice-President-elect, is being heard. The petitioners claim that the election was marred by rigging and manipulations, and that Shettima had a double nomination in contravention of the Electoral Act 2022.Â
The INEC, in response, argued that the reliefs sought by the petitioners are not grantable and asked the court to either dismiss or strike out the petition for being grossly incompetent, abusive, vague, non-specific, ambiguous, and academic. The commission said that the grounds of the petition are vague and discredited the petitioners’ claim that Tinubu was not elected by the majority of lawful votes cast.
Even The Courts Cannot Stop Tinubu’s Mandate – Gov. Umahi.Â
Read More: Electronic Transmission Not Mandatory, No Result Manipulation – INEC
The INEC argued that the petitioners’ prayer to declare that Obi scored the majority of lawful votes cast at the election and be declared winner was defective. The commission said that Obi cannot be returned as elected because he did not poll the majority of the lawful votes cast at the election, nor did he secure one-quarter of the votes cast at the election in each of at least two-thirds of all states in the federation and the FCT. INEC also said that the petitioners did not have polling agents in all the polling units across Nigeria, as they only submitted a list of 134,874 polling agents, which is 41,972 short of the 176,846 polling units across Nigeria.
