Atiku Abubakar, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and Peter Obi of the Labour Party have alleged that President-elect Bola Tinubu is purposely avoiding the petitions they filed in an attempt to nullify his election. As a result, the two candidates have submitted ex-parte applications to the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) in Abuja, seeking permission to serve the petitions to Tinubu through alternate means.
Atiku and Obi both stated in their applications before the court that they were unable to personally serve Tinubu their petitions despite their best efforts. The court has agreed to hear their applications today at 11 am due to the urgency of the matter.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the presidential election, defeating 17 other candidates, including Atiku and Obi. INEC announced that Tinubu secured a total of 8,794,726 votes, while Atiku received 6,984,520 votes, and Obi came in third with 6,101,533 votes.
However, Atiku and Obi rejected the results, alleging that the election was rigged in Tinubu’s favor. They claimed that INEC breached its own electoral regulations and guidelines and that Tinubu was not legally qualified to run for president. Furthermore, they argued that Tinubu did not receive the highest number of lawful votes and that the votes attributed to him were wasted votes due to corrupt practices during the election.
Atiku also claimed that a third-party device was used by the electoral body to intercept and divert votes to the APC and its candidate. Both candidates have asked the court to declare them the winners of the election or order a fresh election. They also urged the court to compel INEC to withdraw the Certificate of Return issued to Tinubu.
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