The Nigerian Supreme Court Thursday upheld the victory of President Bola Tinubu in the February 25 presidential election.
Justice Inyang Okoro led the panel of seven justices to determine Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar’s appeal against Bola Tinubu’s victory.
The apex court in its ruling dismissed the appeals by the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Atiku Abubakar and his Labour Party (LP) counterpart Peter Obi.
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A seven-judge panel ruled as without merit the opposition appeals over claims of fraud, electoral law violations, and Tinubu’s ineligibility to run for president.
Verdict on 25% votes in FCT
The apex court thrashed all the grounds of appeal of Atiku and PDP on qualification, non-compliance with the Electoral Act, the 25% votes in FCT, and electoral malpractices.
The Court further upheld the ruling by the Appeal Court that a candidate does not need to get at least 25 per cent of votes in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to be declared as Nigeria’s President.
While Atiku of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP)’s Obi had wanted the victory of Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in February 2023 to be nullified on the grounds that he did not get 25 per cent of votes in the FCT, amongst others, the Appeal Court ruled that their petitions were immaterial.
Unsatisfied with the judgment, the duo took the matter to the apex court, seeking to overturn Tinubu’s win.
However, Justice Okoro corroborated the Appeal Court’s ruling, saying the FCT has no special status.
The Supreme Court, therefore, agreed with the appellate court that the 25 per cent claim by Obi and Atiku was immaterial.
“On the whole, having resolved all the issues against the appellant, it is my view that there is no merit in the appeal and it is hereby dismissed,” Justice Okoro said in dismissing Atiku’s appeal.
“The judgment of the court below delivered on September 6th, 2023 affirming the election of the second respondent as the duly elected President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is hereby affirmed.”
It listened to Obi’s appeal for about five minutes. In dealing with the LP’s presidential candidate on the issue of double nomination of Vice President Kashim Shettima, the court held that the issue had been dealt with in its ruling on May 26.
“As for issue Number 4 which has to do with double nomination which was not in Atiku’s appeal, it is the view of this court that this issue having been dealt with by this court, this court cannot allow the matter to be re-litigated in this very court. There must be an end to litigation,” Justice Okoro held.
“For us to sit down now and talk about when this man resigned or did not resign when they did fresh primaries to replace him which we have done before, we are not going to do this again.
“This matter ought not to have come in. When this matter was pending at the trial court, this court delivered that judgment. If you read the judgment of the lower court, they mentioned that the Supreme Court has settled this matter and that should have been the end.
“You now bring this issue of double nomination for us to sit on it and write another judgment, this is not how it should be. This appeal lacks merit and is hereby dismissed.”
An election appeals court last month already rejected the two main opposition party petitions, including allegations of fraud, violations by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and claims Tinubu did not meet the constitutional requirements.
Along with its original claims, Atiku’s legal team had also sought to introduce new evidence, it claims shows Tinubu submitted a forged certificate from the Chicago State University as a qualification to the election commission when he applied to run for president.
