Alex Enumah in Abuja
As the curtains falls on the time frame for filing of petitions against the outcome of the February 25 presidential election, candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar swelled the list with his petition filed on Tuesday in Abuja.
Although details of the petition are yet to be made avaible in the petition marked: /PEPC/05/2023, however, Atiku and his party, have since faulted the entire process that led to the emergence of Tinubu as president-elect.
Atiku’s petition filed on Tuesday night is coming exactly 21 days after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC’s) Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, had declared Tinubu president-elect on grounds that his party scored majority of votes cast at the poll.
According to Yakubu, the APC’s presidential candidate from the totality of votes cast in the election polled 8,805,835 votes to emerged victorious.
While Atiku who came second scored 6,984,640 votes, Obi scored 6,984,640 votes, to come third.
However, dissatisfied with the outcome, five political parties had subsequently dragged the electoral body, Tinubu and the APC to court.
The first is the Action Alliance (AA) and its presidential candidate, Solomon Okangbuan with suit number: CA/PEPC/01/2023; and while the second is unknown as at press time, the third is the Allied People’s Movement (APM) and its candidate, Princess Chichi Ojei with suit number: CA/PEPC/03/2023 and that of Labour Party’s, Peter Obi marked: CA/PEPC/04/2023.
The petitioners have anchored their individual cases on alleged non-compliance with the electoral laws as well as the guidelines of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The petitioners also alleged that the February 25 presidential election was characterized by huge irregularities and electoral malpractices following INEC’s failure to electronically upload results immediately from its polling units to the INEC Results Viewing Portal (IREV).
While some of the petitioners are asking the court to on one hand declare them as authentic winner of the February 25 presidential election, on the other, they are asking for the cancellation of the entire poll and an order for fresh election.
