The presidential election petition tribunal will commence the hearing on the issues raised about the 2023 presidential election on Monday, May 8.
One of the issues raised by the opposition parties against the President-Elect, Bola Tinubu, was the drug allegation, which was projected to make the hearing an interesting one.
Political parties that are challenging Tinubu’s victory at the tribunal on Monday
Bola Tinubu, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), was declared the winner of the election on Wednesday, March 1, by the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmoud Yakubu.
The opposition, including Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party, have rejected the emergence of Tinubu as the president-elect, citing irregularities in the election.
No less than 4 political parties and presidential candidates have officially filed petitions against the outcome of the poll at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, which will commence sitting on Monday.
The lead among petitioners is Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi of the PDP and Labour Party. Top of the issues raised is the allegation that Tinubu was a drug baron because he had forfeited a certain amount of drug proceeds to the United States government.
The case would be interesting because many of the supporters of the opposition parties have high hope that Tinubu would be stripped of the victory because of the issues relating to drugs. Still, their expectations could be dashed due to recent revelations.
One of the revelations was the recent prayer of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) at a federal high court in Abuja to dismiss the drug suit filed by the PDP and Dino Melaye, the party’s Kogi guber candidate against Tinubu.
Against what is being publicized by the opposition parties, the NDLEA argued that Tinubu was never tried for any drug case in the US.
The anti-narcotic agency’s argument reads in part:
“The NDLEA has a healthy relationship with the government of the United States of America, the name of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu by whatever acronyms or combination of names has never featured in the exchanges we had with the United States of America.”
Speaking with Legit.ng on the petition, Okanlawon Gaffar, a political commentation, posited that the hearing at the tribunal would be interesting because the issue was taken before Nigeria court when Tinubu was the governor of Lagos state.
Legit.ng