Obi suspends campaign trips to fight for mandate in court

The presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, says he has cancelled planned campaign trips for the party’s governorship candidates so he could be in court to fight for the overturn of the result of the presidential election.

The electoral commission’s declaration of Bola Tinubu of the ruling APC as president-elect has generated intense controversy after a vote the main opposition parties dismissed as a sham.

– Why this matters

There have been reports of pressure on Mr Obi to accept the result of the presidential election and withdraw his court case. The latest development means he is not accepting such calls. It shows the seriousness with which the opposition parties are taking their challenge of the process. On Monday, Mr Abubakar of the PDP personally led a protest to Inec’s main office in Abuja.

“I remain committed and will give more attention to our mission of retrieving our mandate,” Mr Obi said.

– Learn more

Inec said Mr Tinubu won the election even when results from voting centres had not been electronically sent to its website as its guidelines stipulate. Uploading screenshots of the results was to help check vote fraud and tampering.

Voters have pointed to many of such feared discrepancies between results announced at polling units on Feb. 25 and those eventually published on Inec website. Some international election observers have also criticised Inec’s failure to abide by its rule midway into the election. The commission blamed “technical glitch” and urged those not satisfied to go to court.

Mr Obi and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party have filed lawsuits to challenge the outcome of the election. Mr Obi says he won the votes and should be declared president-elect.

Last week, the court of appeal approved their request to have access to and inspect sensitive materials used by Inec, but the commission has challenged the decision on the grounds that it needs to re-programme the bimodal voter accreditation system (BVAS) needed for the March 11 governorship election.

A ruling on the matter is expected today and Mr Obi says he is going to court.

– What he said

“I am supposed to commence our whistle-stop campaign for our various Labour Party Governorship and State Assembly Candidates today,” Mr Obi wrote on Twitter on Wednesday.

“Initially, my trip was to take me to Nasarawa, Lagos, Enugu, Abia, Delta, Edo, Rivers, Plateau, Borno, etc.

“However, following INEC’s refusal to allow our party to inspect the materials (including BVAS) from the 25th February presidential elections, I am personally heading to the Court today with our lawyers.

“As we pursue due process and defer to the rule of law, I urge all the OBIdients in the various states to continue campaigning for our candidates, namely, Gbadebo Rhodes Vivour in Lagos, Chijoke Edeoga in Enugu, Patrick Dakum in Plateau, Alex Otti in Abia, Ken Pela in Delta, Ibrahim Mshelia in Borno, to name just a few.”