The presidential election tribunal, by constitutional provision will on September 6 (tomorrow), 2023 deliver its judgment in the cases against Tinubu, INEC and APC. As the clock ticks, the high-profile cases have not stopped captivating public attention with all manners of allegations of malpractices flying from all sides against all parties, thereby fuelling series of misinformation, disinformation in both the social and conventional media against all the contenders including the judiciary which has the final say over the cases.

At about 4.00am on March 1, 2023, INEC declared Tinubu as the winner of the February 25, 2023 presidential poll on the grounds that his party APC scored the highest votes cast at the poll and that he secured not less than one quarter of the votes cast in each of at least two-thirds of all the states in the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) as required by law.

In the results announced on March 1, 2023, Tinubu polled 8,794,726 votes representing 36.61% of the total votes cast at the election to emerge winner. Atiku who came second scored 6,984,520 representing 29.07% of the votes cast, while Obi scored 6,101,533 representing 25.40% of the votes cast during the disputed election. Rabiu Kwankwaso of the NNPP came fourth with 1,496,687 representing 6.40% of the votes cast. Princess Chichi Ojei, the only female presidential candidate in the election was not near the first four as she pooled a lean 25,961 votes.

Within the first few weeks after Tinubu was declared winner, five political parties with their presidential candidates approached the registry of the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) to challenge the election outcome. The aggrieved parties who met the deadline included the PDP with its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar and the Labour Party, with its candidate, Peter Obi. The rest were the AA with its presidential candidate, Solomon Okangbuan, the APM with its presidential candidate, Chichi Ojei and the Action Alliance with its presidential candidate, Major Hamza Al-Mustapha.

On May 8, 2023, a five-member Presidential Election Petition Tribunal began sitting at the Court of Appeal complex in Abuja. However, in less than one week after the panel began its proceedings, two of the aggrieved political parties withdrew their petitions at the tribunal. The affected political parties were the Action Alliance (AA) which fielded Solomon Okangbuan as its presidential candidate and the Action Alliance which fielded Major Hamza Al-Mustapha as its presidential candidate for the poll.

Chichi Ojei Vs Tinubu
Chichi Ojei together with her political platform APM is praying the tribunal to nullify the election of Tinubu on the ground that the APC did not properly sponsor Tinubu for fielding Mr Kashim Shettima as his vice presidential candidate without withdrawing his earlier nomination as a senatorial candidate. During the senatorial election, it was revealed that Shettima had been nominated by APC as a candidate for Borno Central Senatorial District and was later nominated by the same party as Vice Presidential candidate following the withdrawal of one Kabiru Masari, who was the initial Vice Presidential candidate to Tinubu.

Chichi Ojei and her political party are accusing Shettima and the APC of breaching the Electoral Act by engaging in illegal double nomination. This is why during the proceedings of July 14, 2023 where final addresses were adopted, APM, through its counsel, Andrew Malgwu, SAN, asked the court to invoke relevant laws to nullify the nomination of Tinubu and Shettima on the ground of unlawful, illegal and unjustifiable nomination.

Peter Obi Vs Tinubu
Peter Obi together with his political platform Labour Party (LP), also prayed the tribunal to invalidate Tinubu’s election. The petitioners called 13 witnesses before closing their case on June 23, 2023. In their final written address dated July 20, 2023, they argued that Tinubu and Kashim Shettima were not qualified to contest the poll. They argued that Tinubu was “fined $460,000 for an offence involving dishonesty, namely narcotics trafficking imposed by 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 in the same election year.

Obi and LP also argued that Tinubu failed to win the majority of the lawful votes cast in the election, just as he could not secure one-quarter of the lawful votes cast in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja as required by law.

They also contended that Tinubu “was not duly elected by majority of the lawful votes cast at the time of the election.”

Based on these allegations, Obi and his party urged the court to either declare him as the president-elect, in the belief that he scored the majority of the lawful votes during the election, or alternatively, nullify the entire election and order a fresh election based on the premise that as at the time of the election Tinubu was not qualified to contest the said election.

Also, Obi put forward five prayers in court. Three of them are alternative prayers to the two main ones.

In his two main prayers, he urged the court to declare Tinubu and Shettima unqualified to contest the February 25 presidential election.

In the second main prayer, the Obi urged the court to invalidate Tinubu’s victory due to his failure to win one-quarter of the lawful votes cast in the FCT.

Atiku Vs Tinubu
Atiku together with his political platform PDP, also prayed the tribunal to invalidate Tinubu’s election on ground of non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022 in conducting the poll.

Atiku made the case that for any of the candidates in the February 25, 2023 poll to be declared winner, he or she must score 25% of votes cast in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), arguing that the purported failure of Tinubu to meet the said constitutional requirement invalidated his election.

It is common knowledge that INEC deployed the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System machines for Accreditation of voters and uploading of photographic images of results sheets on INEC Results Viewing (IReV) portal in the last national elections. Atiku had further argued that whereas, Prof. Yakubu (INEC Chairman) had repeatedly assured the public that the February 2023 general election would be the best election ever, with the guaranteed use of the Bi-Modal Voters’ Accreditation System (BVAS) and real-time uploading of the polling unit results to the commission’s electronic collation system and Results Viewing Portal (IReV), the bypass and non-use of the BVAS machines in the transmission of the accreditation data and polling unit results of the election fundamentally and substantially affected the integrity of the results announced by INEC for both Tinubu and his political party APC.

Atiku is also invoking the margin of lead principle to assert that INEC’s hasty announcement of Tinubu as the winner of the presidential poll is unconstitutional and without due process. The principle states that when the margin of lead between the winner and the runner-up is less than the total number of voters affected by cancellations in their different polling units, the election is declared inconclusive and a re-run is organised.

During proceedings on August 1, 2023, when the final written addresses of parties in the case were adopted, Atiku’s lead counsel, Chief Chris Uche, SAN, prayed the court to overturn Mr Tinubu’s victory and declare Atiku Nigeria’s president.

He reiterated that the deployment of technology during the election by the electoral umpire “was to enhance transparency of results collation, where fraud often takes place.”

He said INEC argued during the court hearing that it could not upload results of the presidential election from the polling units due to a glitch that occurred on the IReV portal.

However, Mr Uche contended that during the 25 February presidential election, “there was a deliberate bypass of the technology to create room for manipulation of results.

He told the court that “INEC deployed technology in the conduct of the election. Therefore, the burden is on INEC to explain” how what transpired during the polls.

“The shutdown (of the IReV) was nationwide and created room for the manipulation of votes” in favour of Tinubu by INEC, Mr Uche argued.

Praying the court to ignore Mr Tinubu and other respondents’ defence, Atiku’s lead counsel, Chief Chris Uche said, “We urge your Lordships to do substantial justice and grant all the reliefs of the petitioners which we have clearly proved with evidence, while the respondents have refused to call witnesses in aid of their case.”

The Verdict
People voted in the last election, some with the last pint of their blood, but the results announced appear to be at a variance with the votes cast judging from the sentiments shared across the board. Those who complained were asked to go to court. This they have done and as it stands, the presidential election tribunal appears to be their only hope. In less than 24 hours from now, the tribunal deliver its judgment in these cases. The judiciary must know that Nigerians are watching and expect nothing less than a transparent adjudication so the Tribunal must uphold justice and delivery a fair judgement as anything short of justice is an invitation to anarchy.... The people's mandate must stand!

Many Nigerians will argue that it is the judicial institution without integrity that is constituting a drag on our country. I hope the judiciary will do the right thing and save this nation from further shame by upturning INEC Mahmood's shambolic presidential election....

ATIKU and OBI are just catching cruise. None of them submitted to the court that they were rig out

Excuse.

It is Obidients vs Election Tribunal

Other Nigerians are not with you

They are not the black version of Hitler's facist Nazis

Yes well said and good question what will be left of the soul and moral compass of the nation if this illegal APC government is allowed to continue.... The burden is now on judiciary to rescue this nation....

Racoon:

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2023/08/tinubus-government-where-is-nigerias-soul-moral-compass-by-olu-fasan/

Sad you're supporting this evil APC government and Tinubu, hope you're enjoying fuel at N180 per litre....

Christistruth03:

Excuse.

It is Obidients vs Election Tribunal

Other Nigerians are not with you

They are not the black version of Hitler's facist Nazis

Bebigiby1:
Sad you're supporting this evil APC government and Tinubu, hope you're enjoying fuel at N180 per litre....

Ok

same way you voted for Peter Obi is the same way others voted for Tinubu and Atiku

Peter Obi failed to get 25 % in any Muslim States so that alone is already 12 States lost
plus the 5 SW States where he failed to get 25 % that is already 17 States lost where he didn't get the mandatory 25% National Spread.
We haven't yet added Kogi ,Kwara and others o !
Peter Obi lost!!

Even if you want to stubbornly argue that the 5 SW States results were rigged and exclude them
( But in that case the APC can also argue for the SE results to be excluded too for the very same reason)

Then include only the 12 Muslim State where Peter Obi failed to get 25% and Kwara and Kogi State too
That is already a total of 14 States,
Peter Obi could not afford to have 25% in less than 24 states

Peter Obi still lost the Elections!!!!!