The Presidential Elections Petition Tribunal (PEPT) has set September 16 2023 as the Judgement date for the Peter Obi and Labour Party’s case against President Bola Tinubu, Vice President Senator Kashim Shettima Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, All Progressive Congress, APC.
The PEPT who chose the last day of the 180 days stipulated by law to set the judgement will also rule on Atiku Abubakar’s case against INEC, APC, and Mr Tinubu.
The petitioners called 13 witnesses before closing their case on June 23, 2023, while arguing that Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima were not qualified to contest the poll.
It also argued that Tinubu forfeited $460,000 to the United States District Court, Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, in case No:93C 44833 between the United States of America and Tinubu while his running mate, Shettima, was the APC’s candidate for Borno Central senatorial district and vice-presidential candidate for the whole of Nigeria in the same election year.
The petitioners also revealed that Tinubu failed to win the majority of the lawful votes cast and failed to clinch 25% of votes in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja as required by law.
Meanwhile, the former Vice President Alhaji Abubakar who challenged the qualifications presented by Mr Tinubu to the INEC asked how he achieved his feat without attending any primary and secondary education.
“I woke up this morning wondering how we got to this cul de sac. In 1999, @officialABAT claimed he attended St. John’s Primary School, Aroloya, Lagos, before proceeding to Children’s Home School in Ibadan. According to him, his next port of call in his educational journey was Government College Ibadan and, Richard Daley College and Chicago State University in the United States. Curiously, in 2023, Tinubu settled with attending only @ChicagoState. I am scratching my head. How is that possible? Methinks that all well-meaning Nigerians should be as confused as I am with Tinubu’s declaration that he had no primary and secondary education, yet he has a university degree. You may wish to #AskTinubu how he attained this feat so that we can learn from his ingenuity. -AA”
Mr Atiku argued that a winner must score 25% of votes cast in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), and stated that the failure of the electoral commission that deployed the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System machines for the Accreditation of voters and uploading of photographic images of results sheets on INEC Results Viewing (IReV) portal in the last national elections to follow it’s guidelines is unconstitutional and without due process.
