Nigeria’s election tribunal will start hearing opposition petitions challenging president-elect Bola Tinubu’s victory in the disputed February presidential vote today, May 8, 2023.
Tinubu, from the ruling All Progressives Congress Party, defeated his closest rivals, Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party and Labour Party’s Peter Obi, who alleged fraud and have launched a Court challenge.
The hearing will be before Court of Appeal judges, who constitute the tribunal.
Under Nigeria’s electoral laws, the first day of hearing will see candidates’ lawyers agree on the witnesses and evidence to be used during the proceedings.
Election petition
The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Mahmood Yakubu, had on March 1 declared Tinubu the president-elect on the grounds that his party scored the majority of votes cast in the polls.
The former Lagos State governor had polled 8.8 million to defeat the Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who scored 6.9 million; Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) who polled 6.1 million votes and 15 other candidates.
Dissatisfied with the result, Atiku and Obi have both disputed the results and filed separate petitions seeking orders to annul the election or declare them the winners of the polls.
Atiku urged the court to cancel the election and order a fresh election due to alleged irregularities that marred the February 25 polls in thousands of polling units.
In their 66-page petition, Atiku and his party, through his team of senior lawyers led by Joe-Kyari Gadzama (SAN), argued that as of March 1 when Tinubu was declared the winner of the election, the entire results and accreditation data from polling units had not been transmitted and uploaded by INEC.
On his part, Obi, in his petition, argued that the election was characterised by various irregularities, citing also the alleged non-qualification of Tinubu and his running mate, Kashim Shettima, to contest the election.
He also alleged that Tinubu failed to win a majority of lawful votes and also one-quarter of lawful votes cast in the FCT. He equally alleged that the election was conducted in substantial non-compliance with the provision of the law.
Tinubu and the APC have since responded to Atiku and Obi’s petitions. Also, other political parties and their candidates are seeking the tribunal’s order to nullify Tinubu’s victory as the president-elect.