UPDATE: TRIBUNAL ADJOURNS OBI, APP'S PETITION TO MAY 10

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The Action Peoples Party and the Labour Party’s appeals before the Presidential Election Appeal Tribunal in Abuja were postponed on Monday to May 10, 2023.

The parties are contesting Bola Tinubu’s declaration as the victor of the February 25 presidential election on behalf of the ruling All Progressive Congress.

The APP is contesting the results of the presidential election in the petition with the file number CA/ABJ/PEPC/02/2022 on the grounds of anomalies, including alleged tampering with election results.

Additionally, Tinubu’s victory is being contested by the APP, the petition’s sole applicant, on the grounds that “the first respondent was not qualified to stand for the said election having knowingly supplied false information,” including the alleged falsification of age and educational credentials.

Furthermore, it said that “the first respondent was not duly elected by a majority of lawfully cast votes at the election.”

The party said that the Independent National Electoral Commission’s officials engaged in corrupt behavior and that voter inducement was another practice that, among others, altered the results of the elections. The APP also claimed that “monumental vote buying” was a feature of the election.

The party asserts that “the overvoting took place under the watchful eyes of agents of the third respondent.”

The APP’s petition was called after the Action Alliance withdrew, and the petition was subsequently dismissed, and the parties announced appearances.

The national legal adviser of the APP, Peter Abang, announced his appearance for the Action Peoples Party, while Obed Agu announced his appearance as the party’s legal representative.

For the respondents, Wole Olanipekun announced appearance for Bola Tinubu; Lateef Fagbemi for the APC; and Abubakar Mahmoud for INEC.

Following, Fagbemi, the APC’s counsel, informed the court of his preliminary objection to the APP’s petition and INEC’s lawyer, Mahmoud, informed the court of his client’s pending applications in response to the APP’s petition

Consequently, the court adjourned the APP’s petition until Wednesday, May 10, for continuation of the hearing.

After the adjournment of the APP’s petition to Wednesday, by noon, the petition by the Labour Party and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, were called up.

Parties announced their appearances after Obi, who is the first petitioner in the case, introduced himself.

The LP and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, are challenging the outcome of the February 25 presidential election on the grounds that Tinubu was not qualified to contest the elections “for an offence involving dishonesty, namely narcotics trafficking imposed by the United States District Court.”

They also cited non-compliance with the electoral laws as well as the guidelines of INEC.

Labour Party’s national publicity secretary, Obiora Ifoh, appeared as LP’s representative; May Agbamuche-Mbu appeared on behalf of INEC; Simon Lalong, the Plateau State governor, appeared for the APC.

Livy Uzoukwu appeared for Obi, while Mahmoud was the counsel for the electoral commission.

The duo of Olanipekun and Fagbemi maintained appearances for Tinubu and the vice president-elect, Kashim Shettima, and the APC respectively.

Counsel for Peter Obi, Uzoukwu, said they had filed their answers to the questions on April 22, 2023.

“We adopt and rely on them in this pretrial proceedings.”