The Supreme Court has dismissed the appeal by Atiku Abubakar and the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, against the September 6 judgment of the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC), affirming the election of President Bola Tinubu.
In the lead judgment read by Justice John Okoro, which has so far been supported by Justices Uwani Abba-Aji and Mohammed Garba Lawal, the court resolved all the seven issues identified for determination against the appellants.
Atiku’s petition was seeking to nullify President Tinubu’s election over alleged non-compliance with the electronic transmission of results was earlier dismissed.
A 35-ground of appeal filed by Atiku’s lead counsel, Chris Uche, SAN, faulted the tribunal’s ruling on electronic transmission of results, Tinubu’s qualification for the election, Federal Capital Territory votes, among others.
The Supreme Court in the lead judgement delivered by Justice Okoro dismissed the appeals filed by Peter Obi of the Labour and the Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
Atiku and Obi had sought to nullify the February 25 presidential election. However, the Supreme Court held that Atiku and Obi did not present evidence to show they won the election
The Supreme Court also ruled that the failure by the Independent National Electoral Commission (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.
The Supreme Court also held that the success or failure of an election is dependent on figures and that the appellants ought to have put forward the number of rightful votes they scored.
Okoro in the lead judgement also dismissed the issue of the 25 per cent requirement for Abuja, as a none issue
