Following the applications of Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidates of the Labour Party and Peoples Democratic Party, the Presidential Election Petition Court, PEPC, sitting in Abuja, on Friday ordered that the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, be served with copies of petitions seeking to nullify his election, through substituted means.
A three-man panel of the court led by Justice Joseph Ikyegh, directed that the petitions should be served on Tinubu, through his political party, the All Progressives Congress, APC.
The ruling followed separate ex-parte applications that were brought before the court by Obi and Atiku who had told the court that Tinubu was delibrately dodging to be served.
According to the duo, several attempts made to effect service of the petitions on Tinubu were unsuccessful.
The petitioners claimed that the ‘President-elect’ intentionally frustrated efforst to serve him copies of the petitions, as prescribed by the law.
Therefore, relying on Section 6(6a) and 36(1) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, Section 15 of the Court of Appeal Act, as well as Paragraph 8 of the First Schedule of the Electoral Act 2022, the petitioners sought an order of the court for substituted service.
Both Atiku and Obi further supported their ex-parte motions dated March 23, with affidavits of urgency and non-service, even as they persuaded the court to hear the applications, outside the pre-hearing session of their substantive petitions.
While Atiku’s application was moved on Friday by his legal team led by Mr Eyitayo Jegede, SAN, that of Obi and LP was moved by Mr. Ikechukwu Ezechukwu, SAN.
“Having heard the applications by counsel to the petitioners including the affidavit in support, the applications are hereby granted”, the Justice Ikyegh-led panel ruled, in granting the reliefs sought.
The panel also granted leave to the Allied Peoples Movement, APM, to also serve its own petition on Tinubu, via substituted means.
CHECKPOINTCHARLEY 