Key highlights
- APC has asked the election tribunal to dismiss Obi’s petition with substantial cost.
- The party claims Obi’s petition lacked merit and was founded on frivolity.
- They alleged that Obi lacked the right to institute the petition because he was not a member of LP at least 30 days before the party’s presidential primary to be validly sponsored by the party.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has asked the Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja to dismiss the petition filed by Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP).
The APC’s prayers are contained in its notice of preliminary objection marked: CA/PEPC/03/2023 and filed at PEPC’s Secretariat, on Monday night.
Obi had approached the tribunal alongside his party challenging the outcome of the 2023 presidential election that produced Bola Tinubu as the president-elect the
Back story
Not satisfied with the outcome of the February 25 presidential election, Obi approached the tribunal alleging that the election was characterized by various irregularities.
Respondents in the suit include the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Tinubu, Kashim Shettima, and APC as 1st to 4th respondents respectively.
Obi alleged that Tinubu and Shettima were not qualified to contest the election and also that Tinubu failed to win the majority of the lawful votes cast in the election.
He also alleged that Tinubu, not securing one-quarter of the lawful votes cast in the Federal Capital Territory also disqualified him as the winner.
Obi who alleged that the election was conducted in non-compliance with the provision of the law, prayed the tribunal to either declare him the president-elect or nullify the entire election and order a fresh election.
APC’s Prayer
In its preliminary objection to Obi’s petition, APC prayed the court to dismiss the suit on the ground that Obi lacked requisite locus standi to institute the petition because he was not a member of LP at least 30 days to the party’s presidential primary to be validly sponsored by the party.
The APC submitted that “by the mandatory provisions of Section 77 (1) (2) and (3) of the Electoral Act 2022, a political party shall maintain a register and shall make the such register available to INEC not later than 30 days before the date fixed for the party primaries, congresses and convention.”
APC Argument “The 1st petitioner (Obi) was a member of PDP until May 24, 2022.
“1st petitioner was screened as a presidential aspirant of the PDP in Apni 2022.
“1st petitioner participated and was cleared to contest the presidential election while being a member of the PDP.
“1st petitioner purportedly resigned his membership of PDP on May 24, 2022, to purportedly join the 2nd petitioner (Labour Party) on May 27, 2022.
“2nd petitioner conducted its presidential primary on May 30, 2022, which purportedly produced 1st petitioner as its candidate, which time contravened Section 77(3) of the Electoral Act for him to contest the primary election as a member of the 2nd petitioner.”
The APC argued that not joining Atiku Abubakar and PDP means the petition was not constituted properly as Atiku came second in the presidential election.
They avered that both Atiku and PDP ought to have been joined as they are necessary parties affected by Obi’s reliefs.
“By Paragraph 17 of the petition, the petitioners, on their own, stated that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar came second in the presidential election with 6,984,520 votes as against the petitioners who came third with 6,101,533 votes;
“At Paragraph 102 (iti) of the petition, the petitioners urged the tribunal to determine that 1st petitioner scored the majority of lawful votes without joining Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in the petition.
“For the tribunal to grant prayer (iii) of the petitioners, the tribunal must have set aside the scores and election of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
“Alhaji Atiku Abubakar must be heard before his votes can be discountenanced by the tribunal,” APC argued.
