PEPC knocks out Obi’s allegation of massive vote rigging

The Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) has started reading judgment of Peter Obi’s petition alleging massive vote rigging in favour of the declared winner, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

According to the judgment on the petition of massive rigging read by Justice Bello, he said Obi and the Labour Party failed to list the specific polling units where the rigging took place.

Recall that Obi, in one of his petitions against Tinubu’s declaration as winner of the 2023 presidential election, averred that 18,000 or 11% blurred polling unit levels results were uploaded on IRev. He contended that since the blurred results formed part of the scores attributed to all the candidates, including Tinubu, it would be dubious to announce a winner under such circumstances.

But Justice Bello, in his judgment, said Obi and the Labour Party failed to identify the specific polling units where those blurred results emanated from.

The Judge stated that polling units where the rigging took place were not shown in the petition of Obi and the Labour Party. He said the obligation of proving the specificity of the rigging and where it took place rests on the petitioners – Obi and the Labour Party.

He added that the petitioner did not also present any sheet or forensic document to show the states listed in certain paragraphs on rigged polling units.