The day is finally here. The Presidential Election Petitions Court (PEPC) is set to commence today May 8 hearing the petitions challenging the declaration of Bola Tinubu, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as the president-elect.
Recall that the presidential candidates of the PDP and the Labour Party, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, and others have gone to the PEPC to challenge the declaration of Tinubu after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared him winner of the February 25 presidential election.
Atiku filed a 66-page petition urging 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 the petition filed by his legal team led by Joe-Kyari Gadzama (SAN), the former Vice President 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.
Obi also argued in his petition that the election was characterized by various irregularities, and added both Tinubu and his running mate, Kashim Shettima, are qualified 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 argued the non-compliance by INEC to its own rules according to the provision of the law.
