The Presidential Election Petition Tribunal on Wednesday struck out Peter Obi and the Labour Party’s petition pointing to President Bola Tinubu’s alleged involvement in drug trafficking in the United States.
However, while maintaining that Tinubu cannot be disqualified on the basis of his forfeiture of drug money in the United States, the tribunal judges said the evidence (Exhibit P5) tendered by Peter Obi and LP, other petitioners showed that “it was a civil forfeiture proceeding.”
He added: “The petitioners have evidently failed to establish their allegation that the 2nd respondent is disqualified from contesting the presidential election under Section 137(1)(d) of the 1999 constitution because he was fined $460,000 by a district court in Illinois.”
Tsammani held that the petitioners failed to adduce credible evidence to show that Tinubu was arraigned, took a plea or was sentenced or fined in any criminal suit in the US.
This is even as the court rejected the admissibility of evidence tendered by LP’s web engineer, Mpeh Ogar, regarding a technical glitch observed on the INEC result viewing portal because Ogar “was an interested party in the petition having vied for elective office on LP’s platform”.
