President Bola Tinubu has appealed to justices of the Presidential Election Petition Court (PREPEC) in Abuja to exclude the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr Peter Obi, and his party in the event of any rerun of the presidential election, upholding that only him and the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, are constitutionally qualified to re-contest.
Pres. Tinubu argued that if the justices void the February 25, 2023, presidential election, Obi and his party will not be qualified to re-contest.
But Obi urged the five-member panel of the PREPEC not to subvert the will of the people as expressed in the February 25 presidential election, stressing that they should sack Tinubu without further delay.
President Tinubu’s submissions were contained in his final written address in response to the petition of Obi and the LP challenging his declaration as president.
Recall that the Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, had on March 1, declared Tinubu the winner of the February 25 presidential election with 8,794,726 votes while Atiku and Obi reportedly scored 6,984,520 votes and 6,101,533 votes, respectively.
While citing alleged issues of substantial non-compliance with the electoral laws, corrupt practices, and non-qualification amongst others, Obi and LP on one hand, as well as Atiku and PDP on the other hand, had in their petitions, asked the court to nullify the election.
