Labour Party Presidential Candidate, Peter Obi, has filed a petition at the Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja challenging the victory of Bola Tinubu as Nigeria’s president-elect in the February 25 election.
Obi, who came third in the election, filed his petition jointly with the Labour Party as co-petitioners at about midnight on Tuesday.
In the petition, Obi sought five prayers, including a call for the court to cancel the February 25 presidential election and order a fresh poll. The petition also joined the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Tinubu, Shettima Kashim (vice president-elect), and the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the respondents.
Obi’s lead lawyer, Livy Ozoukwu, argued that the president-elect was not duly elected by a majority of the lawful votes cast at the time of the election.
He also claimed that Tinubu was not qualified to contest the election at the time. Among his five prayers, Obi urged the court to determine that both Tinubu and Shettima were not qualified to contest the election, and to declare all the votes recorded for Tinubu in the election as wasted votes.
Tuesday marked the 21st day after the declaration of the results of the election on March 1, and was the last day for any other aggrieved candidates and political parties to file their petitions in court.
Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), was declared the winner of the presidential election held on February 25, after he polled 8.8 million votes.
Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) came second in the election, polling a total of 6,984,520 votes.
