The Supreme Court has re-affirmed the election of President Bola Almed Tinubu of the All Progressive Congress (APC), putting an end to the litigations by the opposition candidates, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) challenging the outcome of the February 25, 2023 presidential election declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)
The apex court sitting in Abuja, in its ruling on Thursday upheld the verdict of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal which had earlier affirmed the election of President Tinubu on 6th of September, 2023
The apex court's seven-judge panel thrashed all the grounds of appeal of Atiku and PDP on qualification, non-compliance with the Electoral Act, the 25% votes in FCT, as well as electoral malpractices and the issue of Tinubu’s ineligibility to run for president.
The court resolved all the issues raised in the appeals by the two opposition candidates and dismissed them for lacking in merit
“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 Inyang 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.
Edu-Biznews recalled that the special investigative report done by BBC Global Report Team dismissed the claim of forged certificate by Atiku , saying the Chicago State University confirmed that President Tinubu was offered admission as male candidate to Study Business and Accounting in 1977 and graduated with degree in 1979
Tinubu won the presidential poll by the simple majority , scoringbabout 36.6% or 8.79 million of valid votes counted , according to the results declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from all 36 states and the federal capital Abuja, while the closest rival, Atiku trailed behind with 29.1% or 6.98 million of valid votes.
With the litigation over, President Tinubu is expected to focus on the proper implementation of number of reforms including taxation, monetary policy and other critical sectors introduced by his administration since May 29, 2023 to reposition Africa's largest economy
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