Published 21st Mar, 2023

By Joseph Adeiye

A copy of Peter Obi’s petition to the Court of Appeal over the 2023 presidential election result was made public on Tuesday.

Obi, the Labour Party presidential candidate, and his party wrote the petition against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Kashim Shettima and the All Progressives Congress (APC).

INEC had declared Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the APC, president-elect after the February 25 election.

In the election petition, Obi and the Labour Party have four demands.

First, Obi and his party want the court to rule that Tinubu and Shettima were unqualified candidates for the presidential election held on February 25. According to the petitioners, the two were not fit to contest as Tinubu had been found guilty of drug dealing in the US, while Shettima entered the contest as a serving senator.

The petitioners also want the court to declare Tinubu’s votes wasted due to his disqualification.

The petition asks the court to rule that Tinubu failed to meet the minimum required votes in the Federal Capital Territory needed to win Nigeria’s presidential election, and his announcement as president-elect was unlawful and unconstitutional.

Finally, the petitioners want the court to rule that Obi got the highest number of votes and got 25 percent of votes in each of at least two-thirds of Nigeria’s 36 states and the FCT.