Justices Abba Mohammed, a member of the five-man panel who read the ruling of the Presidential election Petition Tribunal today highlighted a contention by Peter Obi, the Labour Party Candidate in the last Presidential election, that his petition only “alleged widespread irregularities without giving the particulars of the polling units.”
Justice Mohammed added that Peter Obi “only made generic allegations” and that the “spreadsheets, inspection reports and forensic analysis filed with the petition during the trial were not served on the respondents.”
He also said Obi and his Labour party “failed to provide particulars of corrupt practices, suppression of votes, entry of fictitious results and other irregularities in their pleadings.”
He already ruled that the evidence of “witnesses not listed with the petition cannot be relied upon by the court.”
However, the Labour Presidential candidate, Peter Obi defeated APC over two objections the party raised about his candidacy and the validity of his petition.
The first, according to the report, was on Obi’s membership of the Labour Party and the second on “whether his petition was valid as he did not join the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar.”
Justice Abba Mohammed ruled that only “a political party can determine who its members are, and that no other person or entity can probe into it.”
On the argument that Obi failed to join Atiku Abubakar who came second in the election, the court also faults APCs’ objection. The judge said “A petitioner is not under any obligation to join a candidate who lost the election like himself in his petition” and that a petitioner is only obligated “to join the person and the political party who won the election and the commission who conducted the election as parties to his petition.”