The Presidential Election Petitions Court on Wednesday ruled that the Labour Party (LP) and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, failed to establish that Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) deliberately refused to promptly upload polling unit results to its Results Viewing Portal (IReV) in order to manipulate the results in favour of President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
โThe petitioner made the allegation of non-compliance a substantial part of their case. By the provisions of Section 135(2) of the Electoral Act, they are required to show how such non compliance substantially affected them. If they fail to show same, the petition fails.โ
The petitioner also made allegations of suppression of results, overvoting and inflation of votes when they said that from the totality of the evidence, the elections are invalid by reason of corrupt practices.
In Rivers and Benue states, during the collation, the petitioner alleged that INEC embarked on massive misrepresentations by uploading fictitious and incorrect votes, and that if things were done properly, they would have won the elections massively in those states.
According to the Tribunal, apart from figures stated in those two states, the other allegations were nebulous.
Apart from stating material particular, other crimes must be pleaded and clearly set out, the court ruled. โThe proof must be beyond reasonable doubt. The petitioner must produce two sets of results, one genuine, one false.โ
