…Insists Peter Obi has no right to it
The lawyers to President Tinubu and the All-Progressives Congress (APC) have agreed that only Abubakar Atiku and President Tinubu have the right to go into rerun if the court so decides to order for a rerun at the Presidential Tribunal, thereby knocking-off Peter Obi of any right to participate in such.
The APC lawyers, who made this statement in their final written address, however pointed out that a decision for rerun is a very unlikely situation from the tribunal.
The APC lawyers wrote: “From the foregoing, the 1st petitioner is constitutionally barred from participating in any election, in the very unlikely event that the election of 25 February, 2023 is voided, as the only candidates constitutionally prescribed to contest any subsequent election shall be the 2nd respondent and the candidate of the PDP who came second, by scoring the next majority of votes in the highest number of States (19 States), to the 1st petitioners 16 States, and also coming second by plurality of votes, having scored 6,984,520, far and above 1st petitioners 6,101,533 votes.
“In effect, the petitioners have no locus standi to ask for relief 2, both constitutionally and legally; constitutionally, because he is barred from contesting legally, because he has no benefit to derive from the said relief, assuming it is granted. See Thomas Vs. Olufosoye (1986) 1 NWLR (Pt. 18) 669 at 682”.
