During its ruling on Mr Peter Obi’s petition to contest the declaration of Bola Tinubu as the winner of the February 25 presidential election, the presidential election petition court wiped out some paragraphs containing claims of irregularities and corrupt practices.
The paragraphs were struck down by the five-member panel because they “failed to meet the requirements of pleadings” and were “vague, imprecise, and nebulous.”
Justice Abba Mohammed, who presided over the hearing on the preliminary objections put forward by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Tinubu, and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) said that “averments” must not be vague or ambiguous. He added that the purpose of pleadings is to inform respondents of the relevant facts so that they can prepare properly.
While ruling over the case of alleged malpractice in over 500 polling units, the tribunal submitted that it does not suffice for the petitioners to say some polling units or collation centres without giving information without being specific about the number.
Mohammed said: “Averments must not be general but specific. Petitioners failed to specify polling units where anomalies occurred or where agents complained of alleged malpractice and irregularities.”
The tribunal also pointed out that amongst the total of over 18,000 polling units where the petitioners alleged that INEC uploaded “blurred results ” unto the INEC Results Viewing (IReV) Portals, not one polling unit was cited.
“They did not specify polling units where election results were not uploaded or where scores attributed to them were reduced or added to Tinubu.
“They did not show the majority of votes they claimed they had scored. Petitioners only make generic allegations of irregularities and malpractice.”
Furthermore, Mohammed faulted the petitioners for relying on a spreadsheet analysis, inspection results and expert reports.
According to him, such documents ought to be served on the respondents to enable them to do their own analysis and respond accordingly.
“The spreadsheet report, inspection results and experts reports were not served but only listed as documents to be relied on in adjudicating the petition”, the court held.
The tribunal later struck out the affected paragraphs as requested by the petitioners and testimonies of 10 out of 13 witnesses presented by Obi during the trial.
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