$460,000 Forfeiture: Tinubu Ineligible To Be President – Obi Tells Tribunal
Peter Obi has asked the presidential election petition tribunal to nullify the election of President Bola Tinubu.
The Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate and the party are challenging the outcome of the February 25.
Obi and LP made this known in their final written address dated July 20.
They insisted that Tinubu and Vice-President Kashim Shettima were unqualified to contest the poll.
According to them, the forfeiture proceeding allegedly involving Tinubu in a US district court is sufficient to have him disqualified by the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
It added that Tinubu ought not to have contested the election.
Obi said:
“It is submitted that the order of forfeiture made against the 2nd respondent by the US court…constitutes a fine, and it is in respect of an offence involving dishonest or fraud by a court.
“It is submitted that by the express meaning and intendment of Section 137 (1) (d) of the 1999 Constitution, a person who, even though not convicted, has forfeited property on account of criminal conduct should not aspire to or be allowed to occupy the exalted office of president of Nigeria.
“That is why the word “or” is used twice in section 137(1)(d) of the Constitution, meaning it carries a disjunctive meaning — to separate persons convicted from persons who, even though not sentenced, are affected by an order of a fine imposed by a Court – like the 2nd respondent in this petition.”
Obi and his party also maintained that Shettima was guilty of a double nomination.
