The presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi, has submitted a petition with 51 grounds of appeal to the Supreme Court, seeking the annulment of the judgment from the Presidential Election Petition Court, as well as the election victory of President Bola Tinubu.
Former Vice President and the presidential flagbearer of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, also filed an appeal on 35 grounds challenging the ruling of the court.
The appeals are coming nearly two weeks after the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) quashed all the charges filed against Tinubu by Atiku, Obi, and the Allied Peoples Movement (APM).
In his notice of appeal, Mr. Peter Obi argued that the Presidential Election Petitions Court made legal errors and arrived at an incorrect conclusion when it dismissed his petition challenging the outcome of the presidential election.
He contends that the five-member tribunal, led by Justice Haruna Tsammani, committed a miscarriage of justice by asserting that he did not specify the polling units where irregularities occurred during the election.
Furthermore, Mr. Obi criticizes the Presidential Election Petitions Court for dismissing his case based on the premise that he did not provide specific figures for the votes or scores that were allegedly manipulated in favor of President Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Additionally, he accuses the panel of making a legal error by relying on paragraphs 4(1) (d) (2) and 54 of the First Schedule to the Electoral Act 2022 to strike out paragraphs of his petition.
Mr. Peter Obi has accused the lower court of violating his right to a fair hearing. He asserts that the evidence provided by his witnesses was wrongly dismissed as incompetent.
He argues that the panel unjustly rejected his claim that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) uploaded 18,088 blurred results on its IReV portal.
Additionally, Mr. Obi alleges that the tribunal ignored his assertion that the Certified True Copies (CTC) of documents issued by INEC to his legal team contained 8,123 blurred results, which included blank A4 papers, pictures, and images of unknown individuals, falsely presented as the CTC of polling unit results from the presidential election.
Mr. Obi contends that the lower court mishandled his case by dismissing crucial evidence and not addressing his allegations of irregularities related to INEC’s actions and the authenticity of the documents provided.
Atiku’s Appeal
The Notice of Appeal filed by Atiku’s lead counsel, Chief Chris Uche, SAN is praying the apex court to set aside the whole findings and conclusions of the tribunal on the grounds that they did not represent the true picture of the grounds of his petition.
The former Vice President maintained that the tribunal erred in law when it failed to nullify the presidential election held on Feb. 25.
He wants the election nullified on the grounds of non-compliance with the Electoral Act, 2022, when by evidence before the tribunal; INEC conducted the election based on grave and gross misrepresentation contrary to the principles of the Electoral Act 2022, based on the “doctrine of legitimate expectation”.
Atiku alleged that the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) erred in law by not taking into cognizance the Doctrine of Legitimate Expectation when the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) failed to conduct the election in accordance with its own guidelines and the Electoral Act 2022.
The doctrine of legitimate expectation, he said, was first developed in English law as a ground of judicial review in administrative law to protect a procedural or substantive interest when a public authority rescinds a representation made to a person.
He said in Nigeria, the doctrine of legitimate expectation demands that a public authority shall respect and apply its stated position or sustained practice in exercising its powers on members of the public.
Abubakar prayed the Supreme Court to declare him the authentic winner of the Feb. 25 presidential election based on lawful votes cast by Nigerians during the poll.
He said that in the alternative, the apex court should order a rerun election to be conducted for him and Tinubu being the 1st and 2nd runners-up in the last presidential election.
While challenging the entire judgment of the tribunal, Atiku claimed that the lower court erred in law when it failed to determine his case with respect to the mandatory verification and confirmation required before the announcement of the results of the presidential election, pursuant to Section 64(4) of the Electoral Act, 2022.
Atiku Abubakar’s Notice of Appeal, represented by Chief Chris Uche, SAN, seeks to challenge the findings and conclusions of the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC). He asserts that these findings did not accurately represent the grounds of his petition.
Atiku contends that the PEPC made a legal error by failing to annul the February 25 presidential election. He argues that the election should be nullified due to non-compliance with the Electoral Act 2022 and grave misrepresentation by INEC, based on the doctrine of legitimate expectation.
He asserts that the PEPC overlooked the Doctrine of Legitimate Expectation, which requires public authorities to honor their stated positions or sustained practices in exercising their powers.
Atiku calls upon the Supreme Court to declare him the rightful winner of the presidential election based on lawful votes or, alternatively, to order a rerun election for him and Bola Tinubu as the 1st and 2nd runners-up.
He challenges the entire judgment of the PEPC and argues that the lower court erred in failing to address the mandatory verification and confirmation required before announcing election results, as mandated by Section 64(4) of the Electoral Act 2022.
Furthermore, Atiku questions the PEPC’s interpretation of Section 134(2) of the 1999 Constitution, specifically concerning the requirement for Tinubu to secure 25% of lawful votes in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
