The presidential candidate of the Labour party, Peter Obi, has urged his supporters not to turn the court premises into a rally ground during the hearing of his petition against the just concluded presidential election.
This was made known on Wednesday morning by Obi through some tweet posts on his official Twitter account.
Obi in his statement pleaded with members of the Obidient movement to respect the sanctity of the court premises and give his legal team the space and peaceful environment to carry on their duties.
What Peter Obi is saying
- Obi stated, ‘’As we go about seeking redress for our stolen mandate, I plead with OBIdients to respect the sanctity of the Court premises and give our legal team the space and peaceful environment to carry out their duties.
- ‘’The Court Premises is not and should not be turned into a rally ground. I urge the Obidients to go about their businesses peacefully.’’
Peter Obi to personally be in court
Peter Obi had earlier tweeted that he would personally be in court with his lawyers over the refusal of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to allow his party to inspect the electoral materials including the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) used for the February 25 presidential election as directed by the court.
Obi, who suspended his planned campaign for various governorship and state assembly candidates of Labour party in various states due to his personal appearance in court, stated that he remains committed to retrieving his stolen mandate.
- He said, ‘’I am supposed to commence our whistle-stop campaign for our various Labour Party Governorship and State Assembly Candidates today. Initially, my trip was to take me to Nasarawa, Lagos, Enugu, Abia, Delta, Edo, Rivers, Plateau, Borno, etc.
- ‘’However, following INEC’s refusal to allow our party to inspect the materials (including BVAS) from the 25th February presidential elections, I am personally heading to the Court today with our lawyers.
- ‘’As we pursue due process and defer to the rule of law, I urge all the OBIdients in the various states to continue campaigning for our candidates, namely, Gbadebo Rhodes Vivour in Lagos, Chijoke Edeoga in Enugu, Patrick Dakum in Plateau, Alex Otti in Abia, Ken Pela in Delta, Ibrahim Mshelia in Borno, to name just a few.
- ‘’It is also imperative that Obidients vote for candidates with Competence, Character, Capacity, and Compassion. I remain committed and will give more attention to our mission of retrieving our mandate. A new Nigeria is possible!’’
For catch up
- Recall that on March 1, 2023, INEC declared the presidential candidate of the APC, Bola Tinubu, as the winner of the 2023 presidential election.
- The Chairman of INEC, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, in his pronouncement said that the former Lagos state governor polled a total vote of 8,794,726 to defeat his closest rival and the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, who scored 6,984,520 votes, and Peter Obi of Labour party who polled 6,101,533 votes.
- The presidential candidate of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP), Rabiu Kwankwaso came a distant fourth with a total vote of 1,496,687 votes.
- However, Peter Obi, in a press conference rejected the results of the election and the collation process, saying that he won the election. He has gone to court to seek redress.
- A three-member panel of the Court of Appeal led by Justice Joseph Ikyegh had adjourned to rule on the application filed by the LP and Obi to be allowed to conduct a physical inspection of all the BVAS that was used for the poll.
- Counsel for Obi, Onyechi Ikpeazu, said the essence of the application was to enable them to extract data embedded in the BVAS, which represented the actual results from polling units.
- Ikpeazu, prayed the court to allow them to conduct a physical inspection of all the BVAS that was used for the presidential election, as this is to ensure that the evidence is preserved before the BVAS are reconfigured by INEC.
- He added that if they are wiped out, it will affect the substance of the case.