The Supreme Court has dismissed the appeal filed by the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar and his party seeking to upturn the judgment of the Presidential Election Petition Court that declared Bola Tinubu as the winner of the February 25 presidential election.
The Court also dismissed the appeal filed by Labour Party and it’s presidential candidate Peter Obi for lacking in merit. A seven-man panel of justices led by Justice Inyang Okoro unanimously held that Tinubu was duly elected and won the presidential election. Justice Inyang Okoro who delivered the lead judgment resolved all issues raised in favour of Tinubu.
He first dismissed an application by Atiku to tender certificate of Tinubu’s Chicago State University on the grounds that it did not comply with the evidence act and that the Court lacks jurisdiction to admit it.
On the main appeal, the panel collectively agreed that the failure of the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC to electronically transmit results did not affect the outcome of the election.
The supreme court further held that Atiku did not produce alternative results of the presidential election that showed that he won majority number of the votes cast to contradict the one declared by INEC.
The Apex court also dismissed Peter Obi’s appeal on the same grounds. The Supreme Court agreed with the presidential election petition court that not scoring 25% in the FCT is not a condition for candidate not to be declared a winner of a presidential election.
After resolving the issue raised by Atiku and Obi bordering on conviction of Tinubu on drug related matter in favour of the president, the court therefore dismissed the appeals for lack of merit.
As expected, the ruling was witnessed by top government functionaries, Political actors from the ruling and opposition parties among others. National chairman of the Labour party, Julius Abure had this to say about the judgement.
The ruling by the apex Court however brings to an end issues of litigations on the conduct of the February 25 2023 presidential elections, where the candidate of the All Progressive Congress Bola Tinubu was declared winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC.
National chairman of the Labour party, Julius Abure had this to say about the judgement.
