The Supreme Court on Thursday affirmed President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress as the valid winner of the February 25th election.
Justice John Okoro, giving his lead judgement, held that there was no merit in the petition that the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, filed to nullify the outcome of the election.
He stated 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.
The apex court held that evidence contained in the record of the appeal showed that the Appellants abandoned the duty imposed on them by the law to not only prove the alleged non compliance, but to establish that failure of INEC to transmit results of the election through its IReV portal, influenced the outcome of the presidential poll.
“Where the IReV portal fails, it does not stop the collation which up till the last election was manually done,” the court ruled.
The Court however said “Truth must be told, the non transmission of results to the IReV portal may also reduce the confidence of the voting population in the electoral process.”
It held that the unavailability of results on INEC’s IReV portal “for whatever reason, could not be the reason for an election to be nullified, adding that Atiku and PDP did not prove that they suffered any miscarriage of justice as a result of the dismissal of their petition by the Presidential Election Petition Court, PEPC.
The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the Presidential Election Petition Court, PEPC that 25% in FCT is not a requirement to win election, adding that Abuja is just like other 36 states of the federation.
On the issue that President Tinubu was involved in a drug related case in the USA that led to the forfeiture of $460, 000, the Supreme Court held that Tinubu raised the issue when the Respondents had already filed their process.
Consequently, the court, resolved all the issues that Atiku raised in his petition, against Tinubu.
The apex court therefore dismissed the petitions of Atiku Abubakar and his counterpart in the Labour Party, Peter Obi.
