‘Peter Obi’s petition a jamboree to entertain the media, dismiss it,’ Tinubu tells Supreme Court

President Bola Tinubu on Friday asked the Supreme Court to dismiss the Labour Party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi’s appeal for lack of merit.

Obi and his party had last month filed 51 grounds of appeal against the September 6 ruling of the president election petitions tribunal which upheld President Tinubu’s victory in the February 25 election.

In the response to the petition filed by his principal counsel, Wole Olanipekun (SAN), the president described the former Anambra State governor’s appeal as a jamboree meant for media entertainment.

He said: “The entire petition was nothing but a jamboree of sorts, which was prosecuted more in the media than in the courtroom and the lower court, being a court of law and not of sentiments, dutifully threw away their petition after a painstaking consideration of same. If considered from every angle, is lacking in merit, substance, and good faith.

“Be it noted that, unlike previous election petitions over which this honourable court has presided (in time past) and made far-reaching pronouncements on diverse issues, including but not limited to ballot box snatching, vote buying, voters’ intimidation, interference by the military, thuggery, ballot stuffing, violence, disenfranchisement, non-recording of votes in form EC8A, which is the building block or the base of the pyramid, and such other electoral vices, this appeal arising from a dismissed petition, the main grouse of which is that, while the presidential election was peacefully conducted all over the country, and results of elections carefully and accurately recorded in the various form EC8As, some unidentified and unspecified results, even in the appellants’ brief were not uploaded electronically to the IREV portal.”

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Tinubu noted that Obi failed to prove his allegations of non-compliance with the electoral act and fraud in the election.

“Instructively, however, the lower court, appreciating that it is not a court of final instance, proceeded to determine the petition on its merit, while itemising several monumental failures of the petitioners to provide any evidence in support of their much-touted case.

“While affirming the election and declaration of the 2nd respondent at the referenced presidential election, the lower court also found that the appellants did not prove any of their allegations on the requisite standards of proof,” the president added.

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