LP’s ‘widespread irregularities’ claim generic, not specific, Presidential Election Court declares

The Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal (PEPT) has ruled that the Labour Party’s petition, alleging widespread poll irregularities in the February 25, 2023 election that brought in President Bola Tinubu is generic and not specific and therefore was unproven.

The court said LP failed to prove the particular polling units where the elections did not take place and also did not specify particulars of polling units where there are alleged complainants of irregularities.

Delivering judgment in the highly anticipated election tribunal verdict on Wednesday in Abuja, Justice Abba Mohammed, said:” In a presidential election held in 176,866 polling units in 774 Local Government Areas, it would be improper not to specify where there were irregularities.”

According to Justice Mohammed, the petitioners only made generic allegations, as they did not prove the particular polling units where the election did not take place nor did they specify particulars of polling units where there are alleged complainants of irregularities.

“Pleading must set out material facts and particulars. In the instant petition, there was no effort to prove specific allegations, particulars of complaints,” said the Tribunal.

“The law is clear that where someone alleges irregularities in a particular polling unit, such person must prove the particular irregularities in that polling unit before that petition can succeed.

“It was only in one instance that figures were given of alleged suppressed votes and we all know that elections are about figures.

“LP alleged that INEC reduced their scores and added it to APC votes but failed to supply particulars of what they actually scored before the said reductions, neither did they supply the polling units where it happened,” the Tribunal added.

Persecondnews reports that earlier, the tribunal also declared APC’s petition challenging Obi’s membership of the LP as incompetent.

Justice Mohammed noted that membership of a political party is an internal affair.

Persecondnews recalls that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) the winner of the February 25 poll.

However, the result was challenged in court by Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar, who were both presidential candidates of the Labour Party (LP) and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) respectively in the election.

On the part of the Allied People’s Movement (APM), it sought the disqualification of Vice-President Kashim Shettima as Tinubu’s running mate as his nomination violated Section 35 of Electoral Act 2022, and other constitutional provisions.

The party prayed the court to void the votes polled by the APC in the election and declare the candidate with the next highest score as the winner of the election.

Justice Haruna Tsammani, Chairman of the five-man panel of justices who read the judgment said it is clear that the claim of qualification or non-qualification is a pre-election matter.