Bola Tinubu, the president-elect, has described the petition filed by Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, against his election victory as “a gross abuse of court processes.”
Mr Tinubu, in a reply to the petition through his team of lawyers led by Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, told the Presidential Election Petition Court, PEPC, sitting in Abuja.
In a preliminary objection marked: CA/PEPC/05/2023, the All Progressives Congress, APC’s presidential candidate in the February 25 election, prayed the court to dismiss the entire petition.
Mr Abubakar, 1st petitioner, and PDP, 2nd petitioner, in the petition marked: CA/PEPC/05/2023, had sued INEC, Tinubu and APC as 1st to 3rd respondents respectively.
The petitioners are seeking the nullification of the Feb 25 presidential poll.
Mr Tinubu, who defeated 17 other candidates who took part in the election, scored a total of 8,794,726 votes, the highest of all the candidates.
NAN reports that while the former vice president came second with 6,984,520 votes in the poll; Peter Obi of the Labour Party, LP, came third with 6,101,533 votes.
However, Mr Abubakar and the PDP are asking the tribunal to set aside Tinubu’s victory and to declare Abubakar winner of the election.
In the alternative, they want an order mandating INEC to conduct a fresh election, without the participation of APC and its candidate.
Responding, Mr Tinubu argued that the entire petition constituted an abuse of processes of court.
He said the petitioners, in another case before the Supreme Court, are also asking for same reliefs as in the instant petition.
He said the originating summons dated Feb. 28 was filed by six states controlled by the PDP (2nd petitioner) against the Attorney-General of the Federation, AGF, Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and others.
He said Attorneys-General of Sokoto, Adamawa, Akwa-Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta and Edo are plaintiffs in the case.
“Most, if not all the issues the plaintiffs submitted for determination in the said originating summons are repeated in the present petition,” he said.
“In the main, the originating summons sought the setting aside of the presidential election held on 25th February, 2023.
“The plaintiffs attacked INEC for not following its Manual and Regulations in the conduct of the election, and also complained of glitches, which is also the thrust of their petition.
“While the originating summons was filed on Feb. 28, this petition was filed on March 21,” he argued.
Mr Tinubu, who said the petitioners are maintaining two processes in respect of the same subject, urged the court to dismiss the petition.
He said the grounds of the petition were incompetent, hence, the court lacked the jurisdiction to entertain them.
He argued that though the petitioners alleged his election was invalid by reason of non-compliance with the provision of the Electoral Act, 2022, they failed to disclose incidence of non-compliance with the law.
He said though the petitioners complained about outcome of the election in 10 states which include Abia, Anambra, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Enugu, Imo, Kano, Plateau and Lagos, he was not declared as the overall winner in any of the states listed.
