The Presidential candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party PDP in the 2023 presidential election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and the candidate of the Labour Party Mr Peter Obi have approached the Supreme Court to nullify the judgement of the Presidential Election Petition Court, which upheld the election of President Bola Tinubu.
Atiku in the Notice of Appeal predicated on 35 grounds, insisted that the tribunal in the judgement delivered by Justice Haruna Tsammani committed grave error and miscarriage of justice in its findings and conclusion in the petition challenging the declaration of Tinubu as President by INEC.
The Notice of Appeal filed by Atiku’s lead counsel, Chief Chris Uche, SAN, is praying the apex court set aside the whole findings and conclusions of the tribunal because they did not represent the true picture of the grounds of his petition.
The former Vice President maintained that the tribunal erred in law when it failed to nullify the presidential election held on Feb. 25 on the grounds of non-compliance with the Electoral Act, 2022, when by evidence before the tribunal, INEC conducted the election based on grave and gross misrepresentation contrary to the principles of the Electoral Act 2022, based on the “doctrine of legitimate expectation”.
On his part, Obi in the Notice of Appeal predicated on 50 grounds at the Supreme Court, citing dissatisfaction with the judgement of the Presidential Election Petition Court.
“Take notice that the appellants are dissatisfied with the decisions in Petition No: Ca/Pepc/03/2023 Mr. Peter Gregory Obi & Anor. V.
Independent National Electoral Commission & Ors. (consolidated with Election Petition Nos: CA/PEPC/04/2023 and C A / P E P C / 0 5 / 2 0 2 3 ), contained on pages 3-327 of the Judgment of the Court of Appeal sitting as the Presidential Election Petition Court, Holden at Abuja, Coram: H. S. Tsammani, Stephen Jonah Adah, Misitura Omodere Bolaji-Yusuff, Boloukuroma Moses Ugo and Abba Bello Mohammed, JJ.C.A.
(“The Court below”) delivered on the 6th day of September 2023, and more particularly stated in paragraph 2 of this Notice of Appeal, do hereby appeal to the Supreme Court on the Grounds set out in Paragraph 3 and will at the hearing of the appeal seek the Reliefs sought in paragraph 4 herein,” the notice of appeal filed at the Supreme Court by Peter Obi reads in part.
Obi in the appeal filed by his lead counsel, Dr. Livy Uzoukwu, maintained that the PEPC erred in law and thereby reached a wrong conclusion when it dismissed the petition he lodged to challenge the outcome of the presidential poll that was held on February 25.
Among other things, he contended that Justice Haruna Tsammani-led five-member panel of the Court of Appeal, wrongly occasioned a grave miscarriage of justice against him, when it held that he did not specify polling units where irregularities occurred during the election. He further faulted the PEPC for dismissing his case on the premise that he did not specify the figures of votes or scores that were allegedly suppressed or inflated in favour of President Tinubu and the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.
Obi equally accused the Justice Tsammani-led panel of erring in law when it relied on paragraphs 4(1) (d) (2) and 54 of the First Schedule to the Electoral Act 2022 to strike out paragraphs of his petition.
While accusing the lower court of breaching his right to a fair hearing, Obi insisted that evidence of his witnesses was wrongly dismissed as incompetent.
He told the apex court that the panel unjustly dismissed his allegation that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, uploaded 18, 088 blurred results on its IReV portal. More so, he alleged that the lower court ignored his allegation that certified true copies of documents that INEC issued to his legal team, comprised of 8,123 blurred results that contained blank A4 papers, pictures and images of unknown persons, purporting same to be the CTC of polling units results of the presidential election.
“The learned justices of the court below erred in law and occasioned a miscarriage of justice when they held and concluded that he failed to establish the allegation of corrupt practices and over-voting,” Obi added.