The Nigerian Presidential Election Petition Tribunal on Wednesday in Abuja ruled that the petition of the Labour Party’s presidential candidate, Peter Gregory Obi was not competent and defective.
According to the tribunal, the petition was beyond repairs.
While ruling on the matter, the tribunal struck out many paragraphs in the petition for being vague, incompetent, inconsistent, nebulous and self contradictory.
In the ruling delivered by Justice Abba Mohammed, Obi’s petition was said to have raised several general allegations of malpractices, irregularities, corruption but there were no specifications in line with the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
According to the tribunal Obi’s claim that he scored the highest number of lawful votes in the February 25 presidential election was a mirage as he did not state or specify the number of the lawful votes he scored to have made such a claim.
Justice Mohammed said Obi worsened the situation when he pleaded report of forensic experts but failed to file the report along with the petition or serve same on the respondents in the petition.
The Tribunal also held that Obi’s allegations that votes credited to Tinubu were inflated was untenable because he never mentioned the number of the votes given to Tinubu.
On the allegations of corrupt practices, Justice Mohammed stated that it is not every allegation of corruption that is regarded as corrupt practices, adding that averments in a plead must be specific and not general as done by Obi.
“The Law is very clear that where someone alleged irregularities in a particular poling unit, as in the instant petition, such a person must prove the particular irregularities in that poling unit for him to succeed in his petition,” it held.
The Tribunal also ruled that Obi failed to prove the particular poling units the elections did not take place and that he also failed to specify the particular polling units where the complainants of irregularities were alleged.
Details later…