Obi, Labour Party Prays Court To Nullify Tinubu’s Presidency.
On March 21, 2023, Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) filed a petition to challenge the victory of Bola Tinubu, of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in the presidential election held on February 25. Obi, who came third, alleged that the election was characterised by various irregularities, including that Tinubu and his running mate, Kashim Shettima, were allegedly unqualified to contest the election. He also alleged that the election was conducted in substantial non-compliance with the provision of the law. The co-petitioners sued the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Tinubu, Shettima, and the APC, as the respondents.
Obi’s legal team, led by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mr. Livy Uzoukwu, filed their case on the last day for filing, beating the 21-day deadline that began to count from March 1 when INEC declared the winner of the election. The petition contains five prayers divided into two categories: two main prayers and three alternative prayers.
Obi, Labour Party Prays Court To Nullify Tinubu’s Presidency
The first ground of Obi’s petition is that Tinubu was not qualified to contest the election. This claim is based on the fact that Tinubu was fined $460,000 for an offense involving dishonesty, namely narcotics trafficking, imposed by the United States District Court, Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, in case no: 93C 4483 between the United States of America and Bola Tinubu. Obi’s petition relied, among others, on Section 137 (1)(e) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), which states that “a person shall not be qualified for election to the office of President if – within a period of less than ten years before the date of the election to the office of President, he has been convicted and sentenced for an offense involving dishonesty or he has been found guilty of the contravention of the Code of Conduct.”
The second ground of Obi’s petition is that Tinubu’s running mate, Shettima, was also not qualified to contest the election. The petitioner cited his nomination for two separate constituencies – as Borno Central senatorial candidate and vice-presidential candidate for the whole of Nigeria in the same election cycle. He said the law provided that a presidential candidate shall nominate another person as his associate who is to occupy the office of vice president. Obi recalled that Tinubu had nominated Shettima as his vice-presidential candidate on July 14, 2022, while the latter was still representing Borno Central Senatorial District at the National Assembly. He added that the APC nominated Shettima as its candidate for Borno Central Senatorial District as of July 15, 2022, while already chosen by Tinubu as his running mate.
The third ground of the petition is that Tinubu “was not duly elected by the majority of the lawful votes cast at the time of the election.” The petitioner argued that Tinubu did not win the majority of lawful votes cast in each of at least two-thirds of the states of the federation and the FCT, Abuja. He added that Mr. Tinubu was not entitled to be declared the winner of the election, having failed to score one-quarter of the lawful votes cast in the FCT in the election.
Obi, Labour Party Prays Court To Nullify Tinubu’s Presidency
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Obi put forward five prayers in court. Three of them are alternative prayers to the two main ones. In his two main prayers, he urged the court to declare Tinubu and his running mate, Kashim Shettima, unqualified to contest the 25 presidential election. Still under the first prayer, he urged the court to declare that he is the rightful winner of the elections.
