A 5-man Presidential Election Petition Court led by Justice Haruna Tsammani, has dismissed the petition by the presidential candidate of Labour Party, Peter Obi, challenging the declaration of President Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, by the Independent National Electoral Commission as winner of the February 25, presidential election, as “unmeritorious”.
The panel held that Obi failed to discharge the burden of proof placed on it by law to substantiate how the election of Tinubu was rigged and conducted in non compliance with provision of the Electoral Act and the Constitution.
It was the opinion of the court that the petitioners could not advance cogent evidence to invalidate Tinubu’s election.
The Court made the pronouncement in its judgment on Wednesday.
Earlier, the panel held that the Petitioners failed to prove the fraud and drug allegations they made against Tinubu.
On the forfeiture of the sum of $460,000 to the US government over alleged complicity in drug related offences, the panel held that the petitioners failed to prove that Tinubu was found guilty of any offence involving any act of dishonesty, adding that evidence before the court showed that the forfeiture order was in a civil and not criminal matter.
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