The Independent National electoral commission has asked the presidential election petition tribunal to dismiss the petition filed by the labor party and its presidential candidate Peter Obi.
The commission said the relief sought by Mr Obi and his party are not grantable and therefore prayed the court to either dismiss or strike out the petition for being grossly incompetent, abusive vague and ambiguous.
INEC further discredited the petitioners over the claim that Bola Tinubu was not elected by the majority of lawful votes cast.
Speaking on the issue on TVCBreakfast, Lawyer and Social Development and Advocate Olutubosun Osifowora said INEC as the electoral umpire will always come into any electoral petition because it’s the body that conducted the election.
He noted that INEC also has its own legal team and they have looked into all the petitions and they have rights by law to reply to these petitions and come up with their own positions as well.
Mr Osifowora went on to say that INEC has a right with its legal team to push their own position and what they have stated basically is that this petition from the petitioner lacks merit.
Breaking down what INEC is saying about Labour party petition, Mr Osifowora said basically what INECc has said is that section 77 subsection 3 of The Electoral act 2022 says that the second petitioner is mandated to have submitted a comprehensive register of members to the first respondent. The first respondent in this case is INEC .
“Normally you you have minimum of 30 days within which a party submits its list to INEC.
“What INEC’s legal team has put forward is that Peter Obi didn’t join labour party within the required specified time.
“Peter Obi didn’t meet the point where the list should have been submitted to INEC and by that you cannot be a bona fide member.
“The fact remains that Peter Obi left PDP for labor party but at the time he left the PDP for labor party, the time had elapsed for him to be a member of the party because labor was expected according to the law to have submitted its list of members 30 days before.
“This is what INEC’s legal team is pushing .
“If Peter Obi didn’t come in within the time stipulated by the law then he’s not a bona fide member and if you’re not a bonafide member, you cannot be a candidate on the platform of the party.
” This is the basis for that preliminary objection by the APC and also INEC has pushed the same thing.
“Also INEC has gone on to say state that the petition by the labor party is frivolous, ambiguous and lacks substance.
Mr Osifowora stated that after all said, the courts will decide based on the law and based on precedence.
