The presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, has asked the Presidential Election Petition Court to declare him the winner of the February 25, 2023 election or order a rerun between him and the President-elect, Bola Tinubu.
He also has a third option, which is to nullify the entire election and then order the Independent National Electoral Commission to conduct a fresh one.
These are the main prayers in the petition filed for him and the PDP at the PEPC secretariat on Tuesday night by their team of lawyers, led by Joe Gadzama, SAN.
In the petition marked ‘CA/PEPC/05/2023’, Atiku listed the Independent National Electoral Commission, Tinubu and his party, the All Progressives Congress, as respondents.
Atiku and the PDP are challenging the election on four grounds – the election of the 2nd respondent (Tinubu) is invalid by reason of noncompliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022; the election of the 2nd respondent is invalid by reason of corrupt practices; the 2nd respondent was not duly elected by majority of lawful votes cast at the election and that the 2nd respondent was, at the time of the election, not qualified to contest the election.
Atiku and the PDP are asking the court for the following:
“That it may be determined that the 2nd respondent was not duty elected by the majority of lawful votes cast in the election and therefore the declaration and return of the 2nd respondent by the 1st respondent as the winner of the presidential election conducted on the 25th day of February 2023 is unlawful, wrongful, unconstitutional, undue, null and void and of no effect whatsoever.
“That it may be determined that the return of the 2nd respondent by the 1st respondent was wrongful, unlawful, undue, null and void having not satisfied the requirements of the Electoral Act 2022 and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) which mandatorily requires the 2nd Respondent to score not less than one quarter (25 percent) of the lawful 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.
“That it may be determined that the 2nd respondent was, at the time of the election, not qualified to contest the said election.
“That it may be determined that the 1st petitioner having scored the majority of lawful votes cast at the Presidential election of Saturday, 25th February 2023, be returned as the winner of the said election and be sworn in as the duly elected President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“In the alternative, ”An order directing the 1st respondent to conduct a second election (run-off) between the 1st petitioner and the 2nd respondent.
“In yet another alternative, ‘That the election to the office of the President of Nigeria held on 25th February 2023 be nullified and a fresh election (re-run) ordered.”
The Labour Party candidate, Peter Obi, had earlier on Tuesday, also taken his case before the court asking for more or less the same thing.
