The Supreme Court has dismissed the appeals by the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) Peter Obi, and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Atiku Abubakar for lacking merit.
The Supreme Court dismissed the petitions in a unanimous judgment on Thursday.
The seven-man panel of justices led Justice Inyang Okoro upheld the judgment of the Presidential Election Petition Court which affirmed the declaration of Bola Tinubu as the winner of the 2023 presidential election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
“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.”
The Supreme Court also agreed with the Court of Appeal that the Federal Capital Territory is no different from the other states and failure to get 25% in the FCT makes no difference in the results.
Justice Okoro asked, “Are you saying if someone scores 25% votes in 30 states but not in Abuja, he should not be president? Is that how you interpret the law?
“That is not the law. Supreme Court agrees with the Court of Appeal,” he added.
Regarding the INEC reuslts viewing portal, IRev, Justice Okoro said, “When IReV fails, it does not stop the collation of the results.”
Although he admitted that IReV not functioning will affect the trust of the electorates in the election, he maintained that the unavailability of IReV cannot be a ground for the election to be nullified.
He said, “The failure did not affect the outcome of the election. The issue is resolved against the appellants.“
The Supreme Court also dismissed the move by Atiku to allow the academic records obtained from the Chicago State University to be used as fresh evidence to establish forgery against President Tinubu.
Ifunanya Ikueze is an Engineer, Safety Professional, Writer, Investor, Entrepreneur and Educator.
