Nigeria Supreme Court upholds President Tinubu's electoral victory
Abuja, Nigeria (PANA) - The Nigerian Supreme Court on Thursday affirmed President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the valid winner of the presidential election held on 25 February.
It dismissed all the petitions by opposition parties challenging President Tinubu's victory.
The petitions filed by former President Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP), also accused Tinubu of the APC of forging the education documents he submitted to the electoral commission, to stand for the elections.
In its judgement read by Justice Inyang Okoro, the court ruled that there was no merit in the petition filed by former President Abubakar to nullify the outcome of the vote.
The Supreme Court ruled that Atiku did not prove that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) did not substantially comply with provisions of the Electoral Act, in the conduct of the election.
Citing the Constitution and previous cases as precedent, the seven-member court, in a unanimous judgement, said that it lacked jurisdiction to entertain the petitions and that the petitioners lacked the authority to produce new evidence or amend petitions filed at the lower court.
Other petitions alleging fraud and/or irregularities in the election were also dismissed for lack of merit.
The Supreme Court’s verdict is final on election matters in Nigeria, the Elections Petition Appeal Tribunal, having dismissed the same and similar petitions filed by the opposition.
President Tinubu, 70, polled 8,794,726 votes (36.61%), the highest of all the candidates. He also won over 25 per cent of the votes cast in 30 states, more than the 24 states constitutionally required.
To win the presidential election in the first round, a candidate must have the largest number of votes nationwide and at least 25% of the votes in two-thirds of the 36 states and Federal Capital Territory (Abuja).
President Tinubu defeated 17 other candidates who took part in the election.
Abubakar came second with 6,984,520 votes (29.07%) while Obi came third with 6,101,533 votes (25.4%).
-0- PANA MA 26Oct2023
