Tribunal strikes out parts of Peter Obi’s petition, dismisses APC’s petition against LP’s Candidate

The Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal has dismissed the Labour Party (LP)’s petition of irregularities in the 2023 presidential election. The Tribunal  struck out about 17 paragraphs from the petition for containing “vague and generic allegations”.

According to the Tribunal, the petitioners (LP) did not prove the particular polling units where the election did not take place nor did they specify particulars of polling units where there are alleged complainants of irregularities.

In the ruling, the Tribunal said “Pleading must set out material facts and particulars. In the instant petition, there was no effort to prove specific allegations, particulars of complaints.  

The law is clear that where someone alleges irregularities in a particular polling unit, such person must prove the particular irregularities in that polling unit before that petition can succeed.

“It was only in one instance that figures were given of alleged suppressed votes and we all know that elections are about figures”.

The Labour Party had alleged that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) reduced their scores and added it to All Progressives Congress (APC)’s votes. But the court ruled that the LP failed to supply particulars of what they actually scored before the said reductions, neither did they supply the polling units where it happened.

Meanwhile, the Tribunal also declared the APC’s petition challenging Peter Obi’s membership of the LP as incompetent, as membership of a political party is an internal affair.