The Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC), sitting in Abuja, has ordered that copies of petitions seeking to nullify the election of President-elect Bola Tinubu be served on him through substituted means.
A three-man panel of the court, led by Justice Joseph Ikyegh, directed that the petitions should be served on Tinubu via his political party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).
This ruling came after separate ex-parte applications were brought before the court by the candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, and the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, who accused Tinubu of deliberately avoiding the service of their petitions.
According to the petitioners, Tinubu made himself elusive with the aim of frustrating their efforts to hand him copies of the petition, as required by the law.
Therefore, the petitioners sought the intervention of the Court, relying on several constitutional provisions and acts of law.
The applications of both Atiku and Obi were supported with affidavits of urgency and non-service, as they persuaded the court to hear the applications outside the pre-hearing session of their substantive petitions.
The Justice Ikyegh-led panel ruled that the applications of the petitioners, including the affidavits in support, be granted.
The panel also granted leave to the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) to serve its petition on Tinubu through substituted means.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the presidential poll on March 1, ahead of 17 other candidates that contested the election.
However, both Atiku and Obi rejected the outcome of the election, which they insisted was rigged in Tinubu’s favour.
They argued that Tinubu was not legally qualified to participate in the presidential contest and did not garner the highest number of lawful votes cast at the election.
The petitioners urged the court to either declare them winners or order a fresh election and compel INEC to withdraw the Certificate of Return it earlier issued to Tinubu.
The court had earlier ordered INEC to grant Tinubu access to all the electoral materials it used for the presidential poll, to enable him to prepare to defend his election victory.
