2023 polls: Candidates from 10 parties file 436 petitions…

Dissatisfied with the conduct of the 2023 general elections, no fewer than 10 of the 18 political parties have filed 431 petitions at the various election tribunals in 27 states of the country to quash the victories of those the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, declared winners.

There are five petitions against the declaration of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, APC, as president-elect. This brings the tentative figure of petitions to 436. The figure will be more if those from the remaining nine states are tallied.

Those seeking the nullification of Tinubu’s victory are Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP; Mr. Peter Obi of the Labour, LP; and candidates of the Action Alliance, AA; Allied Peoples Movement, APM; and Action Peoples Party, APP.
There are also petitions across the states against the outcomes of some governorship, Senate, House of Representatives and state assembly elections.

Apart from the five parties kicking against the result of the presidential election, other parties at the tribunals include the APC; Social Democratic Party, SDP; New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP; All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA; and Young Progressives Party, YPP.

The number of petitions may rise further after the April 15 supplementary polls for two governorship, five senatorial, 31 House of Representatives, and 57 state assembly slots.

Across the states, the tally of petitions are Abia (35), Anambra (31), Ebonyi (2), Enugu (14), Akwa Ibom (15), Bayelsa (9), Cross River (13), Delta (25), Edo (14), Rivers (34), Lagos (30), Ekiti (4), Ogun (18), Ondo (9), Osun (14) and Oyo (20).

Others are Benue (17), Niger (11), Kogi (2), Plateau (16), Adamawa (8), Bauchi (15), Gombe (3), Taraba (7), Yobe (3), Kaduna (18), Katsina (11), Kano (23) and Kebbi (8) among others.