The Presidential Election Petition Tribunal has begun hearing the petition filed by Peter Obi, the candidate of the Labour Party (LP), challenging the victory of President Bola Tinubu in the February 25, 2023 presidential election.
POLITICS NIGERIA reports that Obi is alleging that Tinubu was disqualified from contesting the election by reason of the double nomination of his running mate, Kashim Shettima, in more than one constituency in one election cycle.
He also alleged that Tinubu was ineligible to contest the election because he was fined $460,000 in the United States.
In addition, Obi is alleging that the non-upload of results of the election from the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines to the INEC Result Viewing portal (IREV) resulted in blurred results from INEC with 18,088 polling unit results and votes cast by 2.55 million voters. He submitted that he was the only candidate with the majority of lawful votes cast and the 25 per cent required in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) under Section 134(2) of the Nigerian Constitution.
Speaking after the judges took their seats, Justice Haruna Tsammani, Chairman of the five-member panel, told the court to be patient because “judgement is a bit lengthy”.
The tribunal is expected to give its verdict on the petition today.
