BREAKING: 25% in FCT is irrelevant, INEC must not transmit electronically – Tribunal Dismisses Peter Obi’s Petition

The presidential election petitions tribunal has dismissed the petition of the Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi.

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The court resolved several issues of contentions brought forward by the Labour Party including the matter of needing 25% specifically from the FCT to be declared president.

The court said that the federal capital territory (FCT) is not treated specially in the election as it is not superior to any state.

The tribunal also said that INEC was not mandated by the amended electoral act to transmit results electronically.

Justice Haruna Tsammani, who led the five-member panel of the Presidential Election Petition Court dismissed the petition on the grounds that it lacked merit, adding that the petitioners failed to prove allegations made against the election.

Obi and LP had claimed Tinubu ought not to be on the ballot because of alleged unlawful nomination of his Vice President, alleged forfeiture order against him by a US court in the 1990s.

However, delivering judgment in the petition on Wednesday, Justice Tsammani held that the petitioners failed to prove allegations of irregularities, non-compliance as well as corrupt practices made in the election.

The court also held that President Bola Tinubu’s forfeiture of $460,000 was of a civil and not a criminal nature and also 10 years before, hence no longer relevant to the current situation.

“Having resolved all three issues in favour of the respondents, the case of the petitioners is unmeritorious”, Tsammani held.