By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Nigeria’s Presidential Election Petitions Court has said the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was at liberty to deploy any suitable means in the transmission of the February 25 presidential election in the country.
This is the ruling of a five-man panel led by Justice Haruna Tsammani on Wednesday.
The tribunal said that sections 52 and 65 of the Electoral Act 2022, gives INEC freedom to prescribe the manner in which election results were transmitted during the poll.
The Tribunal consequently dismissed the petition of the Labour Party (LP) and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi.
Obi in his petition argued that the victory of President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the February poll should be annulled on the basis on the “failure” of the commission’s Results Viewing Portal (IReV) to upload election results electronically in real time.
The Tribunal also dismissed Obi and Labour Party’s petitions on 25 per cent votes of Tinubu in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), saying that Abuja is like other states.
The court also said the petitioners Obi and the his party failed to prove that Tinubu was convicted for money laundering in the United States.
The Justice Tsammani panel ruled that no record of criminal arrest or conviction was established against Tinubu by the petitioners.
