By Enyichukwu Enemanna
The Presidential Election Petitions Court sitting in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital on Wednesday upheld the election of President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the country’s duly elected President on the Feb. 25 presidential poll.
The court dismissed suits filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar seeking the annulment of President Tinubu’s election.
The five-man panel of Justices held that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was right to return Tinubu as the duly elected by majority of lawful votes cast, saying Mr. Abubakar did not successfully prove the allegation that Tinubu did not secure a majority vote
Justice Haruna Tsammani, leader of the panel said, “This petition accordingly lacks merit. I affirm the return of Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the duly elected President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The parties are to bear their cost.”
The court also expunged 37 exhibits tendered by the witnesses from the court’s records.
On the issue of dumping of documents on the court, he held that this would only go to the weight to be attached to such evidence.
On the issue of Tinubu’s conviction and the issue of his dual citizenship, the Tribunal again held like it earlier did that this issues were incompetent and liable to be struck out and same were indeed struck out.
The court had earlier dismissed suit by Labour Party and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi seeking Tinubu’s sack on the ground that he (Tinubu) among other things did not secure 25% votes needed in Abuja, the FCT.
The court held that FCT does not hold any special status and not different from any other state.
Tinubu scored a total of 8,794,726 votes to defeat Atiku and Obi who polled 6,984,520 votes, respectively.
