The Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Abuja, on Wednesday, said the Labour Party and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, failed to prove that President Tinubu was convicted of drug-related charges in the United States of America.
The five-man panel led by Justice Haruna Tsammani ruled that no record of criminal arrest or conviction was established against Tinubu by the petitioners
He said, “The petitioners failed to show evidence that the president was detained or convicted for any particular offence as alleged by the petitioners.”
The justice clarified that the fine imposed on Tinubu by a United States court was over a civil forfeiture proceeding.
This is even as the court held that both Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettma were qualified to have contested the last presidential election.
Tsammani, while delivering judgment on the petition by Obi and LP, held that the fine imposed by the US court did not qualify as a fine for fraud or dishonesty provided in Section 137(1)(d) of the Constitution.
Details later…