Nigeria Election Tribunal upholds President Bola Tinubu’s Victory

 

• Atiku, Obi’s rigging allegations not proved, e-transmission not compulsory, says PEPT

• It is victory for democracy, Tinubu, APC hail judgment, LP, Atiku fume, fault tribunal

 

 

Nigeria’s Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) ruled on Wednesday that Nigeria’s main opposition parties failed to prove claims of electoral malpractice against the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) in February’s disputed elections.

The Justice Haruna Tsammani led five member tribunal, rejected all claims made by Labour Party candidate Obi, including fraud, charges electoral authorities broke the law and allegations Tinubu was ineligible to run.

The Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) has struck out some paragraphs in the petition filed by former vice President Atiku Abubakar and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) including the portion claiming that President Bola Tinubu was not qualified to participate in the February 25 election.

The court held that the petitioners who are contesting the qualification of Tinubu in their petition, failed to provide the required qualifications.

The tribunal chairman, Justice Haruna Simon Tsammani, said in a ruling on Wednesday, September 6, 2023, that there is no special status attached to the FCT and that it is equal to every other state in Nigeria.

The ruling was made in response to a petition filed by the Labour Party and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, who challenged the election of President Bola Tinubu. Obi had argued that Tinubu should be disqualified from being president because he did not win 25% of the votes cast in the FCT.

The Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal also dismissed the ruling All Progressives Congress’ suit challenging the eligibility of the Labour Party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, to run in the 2023 general election

The APC had declared Obi’s membership in the LP incompetent.

Justice Abba Mohammed, a member of the five-member panel that read the lead opinion, stated that political party membership is an internal matter.

President Bola Tinubu and Vice-President Kashim Shettima had argued that they had the locus standi to file the case because Obi just joined the LP a few days before the election, rather than the required 30 days.

However, the court ruled that it was not Tinubu and Shettima’s prerogative.

Mohammed said, “The issue of membership of a political party is an internal party affair.”

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, and his Labour Party counterpart, Peter Obi, have rejected Wednesday’s judgment of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal affirming the election of President Bola Tinubu.

The Legal Adviser to the Labour Party, Kehinde Edun, vowed to challenge the judgment at the Supreme Court.

Also, Atiku’s Lead Counsel, Chris Uche, SAN, said he had received instructions from his client to file an appeal at the Supreme Court.

He said “The judgment has been delivered but we have not received justice. Luckily, the law has given us leverage to go on appeal to the Supreme Court. We have instructions from our clients to go to the Supreme Court. The struggle continues.”

The PEPT which began sitting at 9.40am at the Court of Appeal, Abuja, ruled that the petition filed by Atiku and Obi and their parties had no merit and unanimously upheld Tinubu’s electoral victory in the February 25 presidential election.

The Labour Party (LP) has rejected the judgement delivered by the election petition Tribunal.

A statement issued by the National Publicity Secretary, Obiora Iffoh, the party said it watched with dismay and trepidation the dismissal of petitions by the five-man panel of the Presidential Election Petition Court led by Justice Haruna Tsammani.

“And we reject the outcome of the judgment in its entirety because justice was not served and it did not reflect the law and the desire of the people.

“Nigerians were witnesses to the electoral robbery that took place on February 25, 2023, which was globally condemned but the Tribunal in its wisdom refused to accept the obvious.

“What is at stake is democracy and we will not relent until the people will prevail. We salute the doggedness of our team of lawyers who fearlessly exposed the wrath in our system. We can only weep for democracy in Nigeria but we refuse to give up on Nigeria.

Recall, no legal challenge to the outcome of a presidential election has succeeded in Nigeria, which returned to democracy in 1999 after three decades of almost uninterrupted military rule and has a history of electoral fraud.