The Presidential Election Petition Tribunal sitting at the Court of Appeal, Abuja on Wednesday noted the inability of the presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 presidential election, Peter Obi and the party to provide evidence of several allegation in their petition.
“Pleading must set out material facts and particulars. In the instant petition, there was no effort to prove specific allegations, particulars of complaints,” the Tribunal ruled on Wednesday in Abuja.
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, the Tribunal added.
According to the Tribunal, the petitioners failed to prove the specific voting units where the election did not take place, nor did they name specific polling units where there are supposed complainants of irregularities.
“It was only in one instance that figures were given of alleged suppressed votes and we all know that elections are about figures,” it maintained.
The LP claimed that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) lowered their votes and added them to the votes of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
However, the court said that LP failed to provide details of what they actually scored prior to the above mentioned decreases, as well as the polling stations where it occurred.
