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Why Peter Obi Is Unqualified To Challenge Presidential Election Result – APC Tells Court

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Why Peter Obi Is Unqualified To Challenge Presidential Election Result – APC Tells Court

The legal team of the All Progressive Congress (APC), led by Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, has prayed the presidential election petition court to strike out, Mr. Peter Obi of the Labour Party’s petition against Bola Tinubu on the grounds that the former, lacks the requisite locus standi to challenge the outcome of the February 25, 2023 presidential election.


Peter Obi
Peter Obi

The legal team claimed that Obi was a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), till May 24 2022, and he was screened as a presidential aspirant of the party in April, 2022.

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According to the APC, Obi failed the section 77 (3) provision of the Electoral Act 2022, which mandates that candidates must be members of a party at least 30 days before the party’s primary.

APC argued that Peter Obi was not validly nominated by the Labour Party as he joined the party on May 27, 2022 and was declared the party’s presidential candidate on May 30, 2022.

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“By section 77(3) of the Electoral Act, 2022, the 2nd Petitioner (LP) is mandated to have submitted its comprehensive register of members to the 1st Respondent 30 days before its presidential primary.

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“That is to say the said register of members must have been submitted to the 1st Respondent (INEC) on or before 30th April, 2022.

“The 1st Petitioner (Obi) as at 30th April, 2022 was still a member of the PDP and his name was not and could not have been in the register of members submitted by the 2nd Petitioner to 1st Respondent (INEC).

“The Petition herein is incompetent as the 1st Petitioner is not a member of the 2nd Petitioner since the 1st Petitioner’s name is not, and could have been listed in the list of the register made available by the 2nd Petitioner to the 1st Respondent, same having been made available before the 1st Petitioner joined the 2nd Petitioner” APC argued.

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It, therefore, prayed the court to dismiss or strike out Obi’s petition “wholly or in part as may be appropriate”.

Recall that Peter Obi and the Labour Party had sued the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Tinubu, Kashim Shettima and APC as 1st to 4th respondents respectively.

Obi in the petition marked CA/PEPC/03/2023 and filed by his lead counsel, Livy Ozoukwu, argued that Tinubu and Shettima were not qualified to contest the election; were not duly elected by majority of the lawful votes cast at the time of the election; among others and as such, should be disqualified by the court.

“That it be determined that all the votes recorded for the 2nd respondent in the election are wasted votes, owing to the non-qualification of the 2nd (Tinubu) and 3rd (Shettima) respondents.

“That it be determined that on the basis of the remaining votes (after discountenancing the votes credited to the 2nd respondent) the 1st petitioner (Obi) scored a majority of the lawful votes cast at the election and had not less than 25 per cent of the votes cast in each of at least two-thirds of the states of the federation and the FCT and satisfied the constitutional requirements to be declared the winner of the Feb. 25 presidential election.

“That it be determined that the 2nd respondent (Tinubu), having failed to score one-quarter of the votes cast at the presidential election in the FCT was not entitled to be declared and returned as the winner of the presidential election held on Feb. 25” Obi’s petition read in parts.

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