Peter Obi has now revealed how he plans to prove that he won the 2023 presidential election. The Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate stated that he will rely on the results obtained from the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) iREV portal and forms EC8A to establish that he won the February 25 presidential election. Obi stated this in a petition filed by him and his party asking the Election Tribunal to overturn Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s declaration as the winner of the February 25 presidential election.
Tinubu was declared the winner of the presidential election by INEC after collated results showed he received the most votes. INEC’s chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, declared Tinubu the winner after he met the constitutional benchmark of scoring 25% in two-thirds of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, according to INEC. Tinubu, as declared by INEC, polled 8, 794, 726 to defeat his closest rival, Atiku Abubakar, the candidate of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who scored 6,984, 520 votes in the result declared on 1 March.
Peter Obi came third in the election with total score of 6,101,533 votes. But despite placing distant third, Labour Party and Obi had protested the declaration of Tinubu as president and are now approaching the tribunal to nullify the election. In their petition dated March 20, Obi and Labour Party alleged that Tinubu was not the rightful winner of the Feb 25 presidential election and that the election should be nullified.
Respondents in the petition are INEC, Tinubu, his running mate, Sen Shettima Kashim and the APC. Aside the iREV results, Obi and Labour Party averred that they shall equally rely on numerous press statements made by and credited to the leadership of INEC in an attempt to explain the process which led to the crediting of massive unlawful votes to Tinubu.
The petitioners added that at the trial, it will rely on all the Investigation, Forensic, Expert and other Reports and spread sheets referred to/pleaded in the Petition, which are hereby incorporated as part of the Petition.
They also added that they shall rely on all Respondent’s electoral materials and all other necessary documents used for the conduct of the Presidential election. They said that it be determined that based on the valid votes cast at the Presidential election of 25 February, 2023, Obi scored the highest number of votes cast at the election. They petitioners said they will also prove that Obi scored not less than one quarter of the votes cast at the election in each of at least two-thirds of all the States in the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja and ought to be declared and returned as the winner of the Presidential election.
They therefore, sought an Order directing the 1st Respondent to issue the Certificate of Return to the 1st Petitioner as the duly elected President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. That it be determined that the Certificate of Return wrongly issued to the 2nd Respondent by the 1st Respondent is null and void and be set aside.
An order that the Presidential election conducted on 25th February 2023 is void on the ground that the election was not conducted substantially in accordance with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022 and Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, as amended. An Order further cancelling the’ Presidential Election conducted on 25th February 2023 and mandating the 1st Respondent to conduct fresh election for the office of President, the Federal Republic Nigeria. The petitioners alleged glitches in the electronic system installed and managed by the 1st Respondent were a ploy invented to credit unlawful votes to the 2nd respondent.
