APC alleges illegal sponsorship of Peter Obi as LP Candidate before Tribunal

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has filed a notice of preliminary objection with the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) in Abuja, urging it to dismiss the petition filed by the Labour Party (LP) and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, against the emergence of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu as the President-elect in the Feb. 25 election.

In the notice of preliminary objection, the APC argued that Obi was not qualified to contest the election and that the petition was improperly constituted, having failed to join Atiku Abubakar and PDP who were necessary parties to be affected by the reliefs sought.

According to the APC, “The 1st petitioner (Obi) was a member of PDP until May 24, 2022. 1st petitioner was screened as a presidential aspirant of the PDP in April 2022. 1st petitioner participated and was cleared to contest the presidential election while being a member of the PDP. 1st petitioner purportedly resigned his membership of PDP on May 24, 2022, to purportedly join the 2nd petitioner (Labour Party) on May 27, 2022. 2nd petitioner conducted its presidential primary on May 30, 2022, which purportedly produced 1st petitioner as its candidate, which time contravened Section 77(3) of the Electoral Act for him to contest the primary election as a member of the 2nd petitioner.”

Obi and LP had sued the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Tinubu, Sen. Kashim Shettima, and APC as the 1st to 4th respondents, respectively, seeking the nullification of the election victory of Tinubu and Shettima in the Feb. 25 presidential poll.

In their petition, they contended that Tinubu “was not duly elected by the majority of the lawful votes cast at the time of the election.” They claimed there was rigging in 11 states, adding that they would demonstrate this in the declaration of results based on the uploaded results.

The petitioners urged the tribunal to “determine that, at the time of the presidential election held on February 25, 2023, the 2nd and 3rd respondents (Tinubu and Shettima) were not qualified to contest the election. That it be determined that all the votes recorded for the 2nd respondent in the election are wasted votes, owing to the non-qualification of the 2nd and 3rd respondents.”

The APC argued that the petition was incompetent since Obi’s name could not have been in LP’s register made available to INEC as at the time he joined the party. It further stated that all the PDP’s presidential candidates were screened on April 29, 2022, an exercise which Obi participated in and cleared to contest while being a member of the party.

Meanwhile, Atiku Abubakar and PDP are also challenging the outcome of the poll. However, the petition filed by Obi and LP failed to include Atiku Abubakar and PDP, who are necessary parties to be affected by the reliefs sought. The APC argued that the petition was improperly constituted and urged the PEPC to dismiss it.

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