Appeal Court grants Peter Obi’s request to serve petition on Tinubu through substituted means

Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi.

Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi.

Appeal Court grants Peter Obi’s request to serve petition on Tinubu through substituted means

Peter Obi says the request for substituted means on Bola Tinubu and his running mate, Kashim Shettima, became necessary owing to the heightened security protection around them after their emergence as the president-elect and vice president-elect.

ByAmeh Ejekwonyilo March 24, 2023 Reading Time: 3 mins read

The Court of Appeal in Abuja, on Friday, granted permission to the Labour Party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, to serve his petition challenging the 25 February presidential election on Bola Tinubu.

Mr Obi is challenging the victory of Mr Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who was declared the winner of the keenly contested election.

The Labour Party candidate, who came third behind the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, who took the second place, had described the election as flawed.

The two opposition candidates have filed separate petitions at the Presidential Election PetiTION Court in Abuja to challenge the election.

Ruling on Mr Obi’s fresh application on service of his petition on Friday, a three-member panel of the appellate court led by Haruna Tsammani, granted the Labour Party candidate’s request to serve the president-elect and the vice president-elect, Kashim Shettima, through substituted means, in lieu of personal service.

The court ordered that the petition marked CA/PEPC/03/2023 and other accompanying processes be served on Messrs Tinubu and Shettima “by delivering or pasting” at either the office of the National Legal Adviser of the APC or at the office of an officer of the party at its National Secretariat in Abuja.

The court cited APC’s National Secretariat’s location to be at No.40 Blantyre Street, Off Ademola Adetokunbo Crescent, Wuse 2, Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

Mr Obi, who came third in the presidential contest, filed a petition at the Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja seeking to overturn Mr Tinubu’s victory.

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Mr Obi and the Labour Party jointly filed their petition before the court as co-petitioners on 20 March.

Application

The petitioners’ lawyer, Ikechukwu Ezechukwu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), said in court on Friday, they requested to serve the petition on the president-elect and the vice president-elect through substituted means due to the difficulties of serving them personally.

The request for substituted service is contained in an ex parte application filed in court on 23 March. Being an ex parte hearing, Messrs Tinubu and Shettima as well as the two other respondents to the petition – the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the APC were not represented during the hearing on Friday.

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Mr Ezechukwu argued in court it became necessary to serve the court filings through substituted means on the respondents owing to heightened security protection around them after their emergence as the president-elect and vice president-elect.

The petitioners noted that the bailiff of the Court of Appeal made “unsuccessful attempts to serve the petition personally on” Messrs Tinubu and Shettima.

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

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

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They said the purpose of the service of the court filings, “whether personal or by substituted means, is to bring the pendency of any proceeding to the knowledge of the party on whom the process is meant tobe served personally.”

The application, Mr Obi’s lawyer, said was based on provisions of the Nigerian constitution, the Electoral Act, 2022 and the Court of Appeal Act.

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

The court granted the application on Friday.

After the service of the petition, the period within which the two respondents have to file their defence, would begin to count.

The INEC and the APC were also sued as coo-respondents in the petition.

PREMIUM TIMES had reported that Mr Obi and his party prayed the court in their petition to either declare them the winner of the election or order a fresh election, which Mr Tinubu would be excluded from participating in.