Appeal Court Permits Obi To Serve Petition On Tinubu

The Labour Party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi has been granted permission to serve his petition challenging the 25 February presidential election on Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Obi is opposing the victory of Tinubu who was declared the President-Elect by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Earlier, Obi’s lawyer, Ikechukwu Ezechukwu (SAN), in an exparte application, asked the appellate court to grant Obi and the Labour Party leave to serve the petition on Tinubu and the Vice President-Elect, Kashim Shettima, through substituted means.

Ezechukwu stated that it is necessary to serve the court filings through “substituted means” on Tinubu and Shettima owing to heightened security protection around the president-elect and vice president-elect.

The lawyer urged the court to permit Obi to serve the court documents on Tinubu and Shettima through the office of the legal adviser of the APC.

The petition became necessary as a result of the declaration and return of Messrs Tinubu and Shettima as the president-elect and vice president-elect. The petitioners said, “the security attached to and around them has substantially changed; with the result that there is a heavy restriction of access to them.”

They noted that Tinubu’s relocation to the Defence Guest House in Maitama area of Abuja following his declaration as the president-elect has made access to him difficult.

Appeal court accedes Obi’s request

In a ruling on the exparte application, a three-member panel of the Court of Appeal, Abuja, led by Haruna Tsammani, granted Obi’s request.

The court instructed that the petition be served on 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.”

In the ex parte application, Obi noted that the bailiff of the Court of Appeal made “unsuccessful attempts to serve the petition personally on” Messrs Tinubu and Shettima.