- President-elect to celebrate 71st birthday with ‘special prayers’ tomorrow
The legal team of the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, has disclosed that it would be ridiculous for him to respond to the petitions filed at the election tribunal by the Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi and his counterpart in People’s Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, when he has not been served a notice.
The development comes five days after Obi formally filed his petition to the elections tribunal to protest the outcome of the February 25 poll.
Obi’s petition came four weeks after the contentious presidential and National assembly elections that produced the president-elect.
According to the Legal Director of Tinubu Presidential Campaign Council, Babatunde Ogala, Tinubu was not served with the notice before he left the country for vacation in France last week.
The PDP and LP candidates had both accused Tinubu of deliberately avoiding being served their petitions and told the tribunal that several attempts made to serve the petitions on the APC candidate had proved abortive.
His action prompted the election tribunal sitting in Abuja to order Obi and Atiku to serve him with copies of petitions seeking to nullify his election through substituted means, specifically through his political party, the All Progressives Congress.
The Chief Spokesman of the Obi-Datti Presidential Campaign Council, Yunusa Tanko, had expressed disappointment that the recent vacation trip was Tinubu’s idea of avoiding being served the papers.
He said, “They deliberately frustrated the process. That man (Tinubu) practically ran out of the country after avoiding being served the notice. But our party will serve him the notice through the APC. I am sure they must have received it by now.”
When asked about the date that Tinubu’s legal team hopes to respond to Obi and Atiku’s petitions, Ogala insisted that they have not been served any notice.
“How can we fix a date for that? We will file our response before the time lapses,” he said.
On whether Tinubu deliberately left the country to evade being served the notice and if his absence would stall the process as speculated, Ogala debunked the claim.
“That is false. In fact, as of this morning, Tinubu has not been served a copy of the petition. They only obtained an order for substituted service on Friday. So they have to serve him. The earliest they can serve is Monday and he has 21 days from there.
“So when you have not served somebody, you cannot expect him to respond. Until we are served the petition copy, that’s when our time will start counting,” he said.
Meanwhile, Tinubu has directed that special prayers and thanksgiving service be held on Wednesday to mark his 71st birthday instead of the annual birthday colloquium.
A statement from his office on Monday issued by his media officer, Tunde Rahman, indicated that special prayers would be offered at the Central Mosque in each of the five divisions in Lagos State including the Central Mosque in the Alausa area of Ikeja.
Rahman said that during the prayer sessions, special prayers will be offered for the peace, unity and progress of Nigeria.
The statement noted that prayers would further be held for President Muhammadu Buhari and the First Lady, Aisha Buhari; Tinubu’s wife, Oluremi Tinubu; Vice President-elect, Kashim Shettima and his spouse, Nana Shettima; Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu; his counterparts in other states as well as members of the National and state Houses of Assemblies.
“The session at Alausa Central Mosque will begin at 10am on Wednesday and will include delivery of sermons and reading from the Holy Quran,” the statement said.
