Intense legal fireworks and political brickbats will kick off nationwide today (Monday) as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) begins to defeend its action during the conduct and declaration of Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu as the winner of the 2023 presidential election.
Already, the Court of Appeal now serving as the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) is upbeat to entertain the fireworks from the legal teams of INEC defending the impactful challenge posed by Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP), the main challengers to the result declaring Tinubu as winner.
INEC had on March 1st declared the All Progressives Congress ( APC) presidential candidate, Tinubu winner of the February 25 the presidential election.
But the PDP and LP candidates are challenging the declaration and have exchanged briefs with the APC and INEC supporting their arguments that Tinubu was neither ab initio qualified to contest the election, nor did he poll majority of lawful votes as declared by INEC.
At the last count, no less than 91 Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN) have been engaged by the parties to argue their various positions with the Constitution of Nigeria and the Electoral Act 2022 (as amended) as the key documents to buttress their positions.
Obi and the LP are expected to be represented by 13 SANs led by Dr. Livy Uzoukwu.
Also, Atiku and PDP would be represented by no less than19 SANs led by Chief Joe Kyari Gadzama.
Tinubu and the APC lined up no fewer than 50 SANs led by Chief Wole Olanipekun, while INEC have 9 SANs led by the former president of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Abubakar Mahmoud, to defend its conduct of the election.
Atiku and Obi filed their petitions on March 22, while APC and INEC filed their responses 20 days after, as required by the rules.
Atiku in his petition, CA/PEPC/05/2023, is insisting that the Certificate of Return issued to Tinubu should not be, arguing that Tinubu was not the actual winner of the presidential election for non-compliance with provisions of the Electoral Act.
On his part, Obi submitted that the election was characterised by irregularities, and also that Tinubu and his running mate, Sen. Kashim Shettima were not qualified to contest the election.
He also said they failed to win majority of the lawful votes cast in the election, and failed to secure 25 per cent of votes cast in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja as required by law.
The electoral umpire had responded to the petitions arguing that it conducted the election in full compliance with relevant laws and asked that the petitioners claims should be dismissed.
Tinubu and the APC, on their part urged the tribunal to dismiss the petitions with substantial cost as they were devoid of merit and founded on frivolities.
APC argued further that all the PDP’s presidential candidates were screened on April 29, 2022 an exercise Mr Obi participated in and cleared to contest, while being a member of the party, adding that Obi’s name could not have been in LP’s register made available to INEC at the time he joined and contested for the LP presidential primary.
The party equally argued that the petition was improperly constituted having failed to join Atiku Abubakar and PDP who were necessary parties to be affected by the reliefs sought in Mr Obi’s petition.
