NEWS: Appeal court grants Peter Obi’s request to serve the petition on Tinubu

Peter Obi, the presidential candidate for the Labour Party, was permitted on Friday to serve his petition contesting the February 25, 2023, presidential election by the Court of Appeal in Abuja.

Bola Tinubu, the All Progressives Congress’s presidential candidate, is facing opposition from Obi (APC).

According to reports, Tinubu received 8.8 million votes, and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) chairman Mahmood Yakubu proclaimed him the winner of the election on March 1.

Nevertheless, after finishing third in the polls for the presidency, Obi petitioned the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal in Abuja to overturn Tinubu’s win.

On March 20, Obi and the Labour Party together petitioned the court with a lawsuit.

In an ex-parte motion, the petitioner’s attorney, Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) Ikechukwu Ezechukwu, pleaded with the appeal court to give Obi and the Labour Party permission to serve Tinubu and the Vice President-elect, Kashim Shettima, with the petition through other methods.

Ezechukwu stated that because of the increased security around the president-elect and vice president-elect, it was essential to serve the court documents to Messrs. Tinubu and Shettima by “substituted methods.”

The attorney requested that the court allow Obi to deliver the court papers to Messrs. Tinubu and Shettima via the APC’s legal counsel’s office.

A three-member panel from the Court of Appeal in Abuja, chaired by Haruna Tsammani, decided on the appeal on Friday and approved Obi’s plea.

The petition must be served on Messrs. Tinubu and Shettima “by delivering…or pasting the petition No: CA/PEPC/03/2023 and all other processes filed in the petition at either the office of the National Legal Adviser of the” APC or…with any other officer of the” APC “at its National Secretariat at No. 40 Blantyre Street, Off Ademola Adetokunbo Crescent, Wuse 2, Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.”

The bailiff of the Court of Appeal made “unsuccessful attempts to serve the petition personally on” Messrs. Tinubu and Shettima, according to Obi’s ex-parte application.

The security surrounding and surrounding Messrs. Tinubu and Shettima “has substantially changed; as a result, there is a heavy restriction of access to them,” Mr Obi told the court. “As a result of the declaration and return of” Messrs. Tinubu and Shettima “as the president-elect and vice president-elect, respectively,”

Obi added that Tinubu’s shift to the Maitama neighbourhood of Abuja’s Defence Guest House following his announcement as the president-elect had made contact with him challenging.

“Whether personal or via substituted means,” he noted, “the goal of the service of the court documents is to bring the pendency of any case to the notice of the party on whom the process is intended to be served directly.”

The Election Act of 2022, the Court of Appeal Act, and clauses of the Nigerian constitution, according to Obi’s attorney, served as the foundation for the motion.

On March 23, the ex-parte request was submitted to the Court.

Obi requested in his appeal that the court either proclaim him the president of Nigeria or order a new election in which Tinubu would not be allowed to run.