The Independent

The victory savoured in the just concluded presidential election in Nigeria by Gen. Mathew Olusegun Obasango of the People's Democratic Party (PDP), is said to have received a jolt early this week as his opponent in the presidential race, Chief Samuel Oluyemisi Falae, the candidate of the alliance between the All People Party (APP) and the Allaince for Democracy (AD), stormed the Abuja court of Appeal to challenge the victory. According to the "Independent" Chief Falae praying the court to declare him winner of the election averred that although the National Electoral Commission (NEC) declared Obasanjo, a former military head of State, winner of the election with 18,736,154 votes as against 11,627,789 votes accredited to him, Obasanjo actually scored 7,262,348 lawful votes while he (Falae) won the election with 11,627,789" lawful votes". Chief Falae is reported as saying that the figures quoted above show that he secured one-quarter of the votes cast at the election and one-quarter of the votes cast in each of at least two- thirds of the states of Nigeria including the capital Abuja. The report says Falae's petition is premised on five grounds, Non-qualification, disqualification, corrupt practices, irregularities and vanished ballot papers. Falae claimed that Obasanjo "was at the time of the election not qualified to contest because he is a member of the Ogboni Secret Society. He is adjudged guilty of treason and/or treasonable felony by a tribunal, and was at all times material, hereto, a public officer by virtue of being a member of the National Council of State. GRi.