The Supreme Court Panel unanimiusly, on Thursday, October 26, 2023 confirmed the election of President Bola Tinubu as it dismissed all the issues in contention in the appeal against his [Tinubu’s] election by Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party [PDP].
The nation’s apex court dismissed the appeal filed by the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for lacking in merit.
The court has since proceeded to begin the reading of its judgment on the appeal by Mr Peter Obi, the presidential standard bearer in the February 25, 2023 election.
In the instant case just dekivered, the court held that Atiku failed to prove that he won the election, stating that there was no alternative figure of votes to counter that validly declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The Supreme Court said it coukd not manufacture votes in support of Atiku and PDP.
The apex court dismissed 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.
Justice Okoro stated that since all the seven issues had been resolved against Atiku and PDP, the election of President Tinubu was affirmed.
The Supreme Court declared that the failure of IREV was not a ground for the nullification of presidential election.
The court held that IREV failure did not stop the collation of the election results.
The Supreme Court stated that the failure by INEC to transmit election results electronically did not affect the outcome of the election and could not warrant the nullification of the result of the presidential election.
Justice John Okoro made the pronouncements in a lead judgment on the appeal by former Vice President and Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, seeking to nullify the February 25,presidential election of President Bola Tinubu.
Reading the judgment, Justice Okoro had also declared that failure to secure 25% of votes cast in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja was not a basis for a candidate not to have been declared winner of the presidential election.
Justice Okoro declared the constitution was for everyone.
The justice stated that the constitution would have stated expressly that presidential candidate must win 25% of votes cast in FCT to be declared as president.
