Tinubu, Shettima contest Obi’s votes in Akwa-Ibom, Anambra, Enugu, Imo
President-Elect Bola Tinubu and Vice President-elect Kashim Shettima are jointly contesting the votes declared for the Labour Party (LP) and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, in 630 polling units in Akwa-Ibom, Anambra, Enugu and Imo states.
Their objection was contained in their petition at the 2023 presidential election petition tribunal where both are respondents.
The objection to the votes is premised on alleged irregularities recorded in the affected polling units.
According to them, “An aggregation of the votes in the said polling units will result in 78, 200 votes for the petitioners (Obi and LP) and 5, 286 for the 2nd respondent (Tinubu).”
According to them, “upon a deduction of the said votes from the votes of the petitioners and the 2nd respondent, respectively, from their respectively declared 6,101,533 and 8,794,726 votes, the petitioners will be left with 6,023, 333 votes, while the 2™ respondent will maintain a total of 8,789,440 votes.”
They also faulted the claim by Obi and his party that the Vice President-elect was not qualified to stand election on grounds of alleged double nomination.
They argued that contrary to claims by Obi and his party, Shettima had already withdrawn his candidature for that Borno Central Senatorial District and ceased to be the nominated senatorial candidate of the APC before becoming the vice presidential candidate of the party.
They added that by a notice of voluntary withdrawal, dated 6th July, 2022, addressed to the national chairman of the APC and executed before a Notary Public, Emoedume I. Brai, Esq. on the same day, Shettima notified the APC of the voluntary withdrawal of his candidacy for the Borno Central Senatorial District election scheduled to hold on 25th February, 2023.
Tinubu and Shettima stated that following Shetima’s voluntary withdrawal of his candidacy from the senatorial election, the APC conducted a fresh primary election, which produced Barr. Kaka-Shehu Lawan as the candidate who went on to contest the senatorial election on the platform of the APC.
“The primary election that returned the said Barr. Kaka-Shehu Lawan was duly monitored by the 1st respondent (Lawan), who at the time had notice and was duly aware of the withdrawal of the 3rd respondent (Shettima) as candidate of the 4th respondent from the senatorial contest, which said withdrawal was the sole reason for the fresh primary election.
“The 3rd respondent’s selection by the 2nd respondent (Tinubu) as his running mate qua vice-presidential candidate did not occur until 15th July, 2022, a period of at least nine days after his voluntary withdrawal as the senatorial candidate of the 4th respondent.”
Share your thoughts on the story Tinubu, Shettima contest Obi’s votes in Akwa-Ibom, Anambra, Enugu, Imo with NigerianSketch in the comments section below.
