The Presidential Election Petition Tribunal has fixed dates for hearing of the petition filed before her by HE Peter Obi and the Labour Party as first and second petitioners respectively against Independent National Electoral Commission, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, HE Kashim Shettima and the All-Progressives Congress as first, second, third and fourth respondents respectively.
Barring any last-minute changes, May 10, 12 and 13 have been slated as hearing days in a petition which will decide the future of Nigeria, whichever side the pendulum swings. History would like to be on the side of a new Nigeria with renewed hope for the future of her teeming and vibrant youths. It would like to be on the side of a truly united country with opportunities to maximize each individual’s potential. It would definitely be for an entity where every individual and community are secured to go for their genuine business without fear of harm and harassment from criminals or even law enforcement agents.
These and many more positives of a beckoning history formed the basis of where each voter made his/her decision on February 25. May the five justices be fair and equitable to deliver a judgment that will ensure the majority of the votes cast become relevant.
However, most OBIdients and progressive Nigerians are worried that the hearing is starting just few days to swearing in day of May 29 and that the intent seems foreclosed. This concern is well-founded and truly disturbing. But there are five petitions against Tinubu. Nobody knows where the Tribunal decided to start hearing from. Besides, just the 25% total of votes in FCT clause in the Constitution is enough to stop any inauguration and one should presume that all the five justices already have their judgments on that waiting.
Additionally, Shettima’s dual candidacy is another that does not require more than one hearing to decide. It’s a straightforward verdict, whichever way the Tribunal wishes to swing.
Tinubu’s Chicago $460,000 forfeiture has already been decided by the United States government. All that is required is for Special Agent Larry Moss to appear via subpoena to confirm or refute that Tinubu’s forfeiture was connected to drugs trafficking and money laundering – both criminal cases.
Tinubu’s forgery and perjury allegations are not expected to drag unbend. CTC of INEC’s forms which Tinubu filled under oath are available as evidence. Original samples of Chicago University certificate have been obtained by subpoena. The difference in texture and wordings are clear from INEC’s CTC copy which Tinubu attached to his forms.
The only thing that could drag is proving electoral fraud. With the ferocity of INEC to do everything to prove Tinubu won the election one can easily assume that the electoral body might have tampered with the back-end server. This will expectedly generate a lot of fireworks that will heat up the Appeal Court room. Hence, CTC of forms EC8A both from INEC and those submitted by agents of petitioning parties may play more roles than earlier anticipated.
INEC is equally expected to prove the 2022 Electoral Act wrong while in the process of defending manual collation for only the presidential results. INEC will also attempt to successfully defend the inconsistency of IReV with result uploads and mainly to explain why all the video evidence of electoral fraud should be discarded as ‘photoshops.’ Certainly, this may go the whole hug of the 180 days.
Dear OBIdients and progressive Nigerians, however long it takes, just keep faith alive. This is not likely going to be business as usual. Immediately PO submitted his petition, the Tinubu army and APC panicked into overdrive.
- Accused him of treason with Lai Mohammed going as far as Washington DC to acclaim election was free, fair and credible. Why were they sweating all over the place when they challenged him to go to court?
- Introduced Prof Wole Soyinka to introduce the word, ‘fascists’ in a very shocking manner. How on earth could stating facts as they happened ever be considered as being fascist in a democratic county?
- Manufactured Deep Fake audio to label PO a religious bigot. Why go this far after the election when votes had already been cast if they truly won the election?
- Photo shopped pictures all over the place to claim PO is secretly negotiating a reconciliation? Is this all not about the guilty being afraid?
- Concocting lies all over the place to de-market PO. Are we still campaigning or just trying to influence the judges to regard PO as not reliable to be handed Nigeria over to as president?
Better believe it – Tinubu and the old order are in a big mess. Rigging an election where most Nigerians were indifferent is one thing. But rigging this one where every Nigerian youth has huge interest is quite another. The Appeal Court, venue of the Tribunal proceedings may be in Abuja but Nigerians all over the world will be watching directly or indirectly. There is always a judgment day and the members of the old order should better allow the Judiciary to do their work conscientiously.