On Friday, the Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja ordered Atiku Abubakar, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, and his Labour Party counterpart, Peter Obi, to serve President-elect Bola Tinubu with copies of petitions seeking to nullify his election through substituted means.
Tinubu’s political party, the APC, received a court order to serve the petitions.
Abubakar and Obi filed separate ex-parte motions before the court. The PDP and LP candidates accused Tinubu of avoiding the service of their petitions. The candidates stated that their attempts to serve Tinubu directly were unsuccessful.
Read also: David Umahi Urges Peter Obi, Atiku To Accept Defeat.
Leader of Atiku and Obi’s legal teams, Eyitayo Jegede (SAN) and Ikechukwu Ezechukwu (SAN), separately moved the applications on Friday. The lawyers relied on Section 6(6a) and 36(1) of the 1999 Constitution, Section 15 of the Court of Appeal Act, and Paragraph 8 of the First Schedule of the Electoral Act 2022 to seek the court’s intervention. The aggrieved presidential candidates supported their ex-parte motions, dated March 23, 2023, with affidavits of urgency and non-service.
Tinubu’s opponents persuaded the court to hear the applications outside the pre-hearing session of their substantive petitions.
Justice Joseph Ikyegh led a three-person panel and delivered the panel’s ruling on the applications. “Having heard the applications by counsel to the petitioners, including the affidavit in support, the applications are hereby granted.”
