Tribunal dismisses Peter Obi’s claims of majority votes
The Presidential Election Petitions Court has stated that the Labour Party (LP) and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, have failed to demonstrate how they obtained the majority of lawful votes in the February 25 presidential election.
Justice Abba Bello Mohammed delivered the leading judgment, noting that the LP made general allegations of irregularities, vote suppression, and corrupt practices in states like Rivers, Benue, Lagos, Taraba, Imo, and Osun. However, they failed to specify the affected polling units.
The court also highlighted that the LP did not prove their allegations of overvoting against the All Progressives Congress (APC) or provide concrete evidence of their reduced votes. The respondents argued that Obi’s petition lacked specific details and particulars regarding the widespread irregularities mentioned.
Justice Mohammed emphasized the necessity of specifying irregularities in individual polling units, considering the magnitude of a presidential election held in 176,866 polling units across 774 Local Government Areas. The court concluded that the petitioners only made generic allegations without providing specific evidence.
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The tribunal stated, “Pleadings must set out material facts and particulars. In this petition, there was no effort to prove specific allegations or provide particulars of complaints.”
The court further noted that the LP failed to specify the polling units where the alleged irregularities occurred or where the election did not take place. Exceptions were only made in a single instance when figures of alleged suppressed votes were provided, which the court deemed insufficient.
“LP alleged that INEC reduced their scores and added it to APC votes but failed to supply particulars of what they actually scored before the said reductions, neither did they supply the polling units where it happened.”
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