Atiku To Tribunal: Declare Me Winner Or Order Rerun Of 2023 Presidential Election

Former Vice President  Atiku Abubakar, who was the PDP presidential candidate in  the presidential election held on February 25 2023  , has asked the Presidential Election Petition  Tribunal to declare him  as  winner of the election  or order a rerun of the election with himself and the President-elect,  Asiwaju Bola Tinubu as contestants.

Other options include having the entire election process  nullified  to allow a fresh one.

Team@orientactualmags.com  learned these were the key reliefs being sought in the petition  submitted by the former Vice President  and  his party, the PDP.

The petition was submitted  at the PEPC secretariat on Tuesday night by their team of lawyers led by Joe Gadzama (SAN).

Listed as respondents in the petition marked: CA/PEPC/05/2023 are the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Tinubu and  the APC.

They are questioning   Tinubu’s  election victory  on four grounds which  include non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022.

The petitioners also apart from alleging electoral malpractices, claimed  that Tinubu was not duly elected by a majority of lawful votes cast in the election adding that  at the time of the election, he was also not qualified to stand as a candidate.

Their prayers include;

 ‘That it may be determined that the President-Elect was not duly elected by the majority of lawful votes cast in the election and therefore his declaration as winner of the election  by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC),  was unlawful, wrong, unconstitutional, and void and of no effect whatsoever’.

The PDP and Atiku  also want it determined that the declaration of Tinubu as president-elect by INEC, was unlawful, having not satisfied the requirements of the Electoral Act 2022 and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) which mandatorily requires that he scores nothing less than one quarter (25 percent) of the lawful votes cast in  the election in each of at least two-thirds of all the states in the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

That it should be determined that Tinubu was, at the time of the election, not qualified to contest the said election.

That it should be determined that Atiku Abubakar, having scored the majority of lawful votes cast in the Presidential election in question , be returned as  winner of the said election and be sworn in as the duly elected President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria’.

In the alternative, the petitioners have asked the court for an order directing INEC to conduct a second election (run-off) between Tinubu and Atiku.

‘That the election to the office of the President of Nigeria held on 25th February 2023 be nullified and a fresh election (re-run) be ordered.

The constitution allows the courts 180 days to make a ruling on election matters and plaintiffs can then appeal to the Supreme Court’ Atiku and the PDP also added -Team@orientactualmags.com Do you have any information you wish to share with us? Do you want us to cover your event or programme? Kindly send SMS to 08059100286, 09094171980. Thank you