The Supreme Court has dismissed all 51 grounds of appeal filed by Labour Party, LP standard bearer, Peter Obi against judgement of Presidential Election Petition Court that upheld victory of President Tinubu of All Progressives Congress, APC.
The Supreme Court had also earlier dismissed in totality all 35 grounds of appeal by Peoples Democratic Party, PDP Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar and upheld the judgement of Presidential Election Petition Court that validated the February 25 election victory of President Bola Tinubu of APC.
The apex court says PDP Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar failed to prove that failure of INEC to transmit results of February 25 Presidential election real-time on IRev amounted to non-substantial compliance with 2022 Electoral Act.
The Supreme Court also held that any failure of the winner of presidential election in Nigeria to win the highest number of votes or score 25% of vote cast in Federal Capital Territory Abuja does not invalidate his or her victory as the nation’s capital is to be treated as one of 36 states of the federation.
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Apex court insists that only party polling unit agents can serve as witnesses for candidates in election petitions to prove allegations of irregularities at polling units as testimonies of party collation centre agents and those of “experts” are mere hearsay evidence.
The seven-member panel of Supreme Court Justices held that the PDP Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar did not present any other alternative results from February 25 polls other than those obtained from INEC and can not expect the court to rely on any other election results not before it to declare him winner.
The Supreme Court had earlier dismissed the motion by PDP Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar to file fresh evidence obtained from the Chicago State University in the United States on academic records of President Bola Tinubu of APC.
(Editor: Terverr Tyav)
