The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed an appeal by by the Peoples Democratic Party and its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, to overturn the result of February’s presidential election in which Muhammadu Buhari was returned to office.
Atiku Abubakar lodged his initial complaint with the election tribunal, which ruled against him last month. Tuesday’s decision is likely to end the former vice president’s ambition to govern Africa’s most populous country.
The Supreme Court unanimously threw out Atiku’s appeal as “lacking merit”, saying in a short statement it would issue a more detailed reasoning for its decision later.
The Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Tanko Muhammad, who led six other members of the apex court’s panel, delivered the three-sentence judgment which delivered the final nail of the coffin of Atiku’s question to be declared winner of the election.
Atiku said Nigeria’s judiciary had been “sabotaged and undermined,” but also that his effort to fight the result in court had ended. “I must accept that the judicial route I chose to take, as a democrat, has come to a conclusion,” Abubakar said in a statement. “Whether justice was done, is left to the Nigerian people to decide.”
Buhari thanked Atiku for using the courts to address the issue.
“Now, following this final legal bid before the highest court, it is time the country is afforded the right to move on – in the interest of all Nigerians – regardless of how they voted,” Buhari said in a statement.
Buhari took 56% of the vote against 41% for Atiku, according to electoral commission data. A Buhari victory had been widely anticipated.
The Chief Justice said the reasons for the decision of the court would be disclosed on a future date which will be made known to the parties concerned.
According to him, members of the panel read all the documents and exhibits filed in the case for two weeks and found the appeal to be lacking in merit.
He said, “We have examined all the briefs and the exhibits for over two weeks and we agree that there is no merit in this appeal. The appeal is dismissed. (Our) Reasons to be given on a date to be announced.”
The judgment, which was unanimously consented to by the other six members of the panel, came less than an hour after the court took arguments on the appeal on Wednesday.
Other members of the panel who agreed with the lead judgment delivered by the CJN were Justices Bode Rhodes-Vivour, Kayode Ariwoola, John Okoro, Amiru Sanusi, Ejembi Eko and Uwani Aba-Aji.
The National Chairmen of both the PDP and the APC, Uche Secondus, and Adams Oshiomhole, respectively, led a handful of their party leaders to the Wednesday’s proceedings.
Apart from Obi, some other PDP leaders sighted in court on Wednesday were a former Minister of Aviation, Osita Chidoka; Ben Obi, and Tom Ikimi.
The pioneer chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Nuhu Ribadu, was among the top members of the APC who attended the Wednesday’s proceedings along with Oshiomhole.
The tribunal’s judgment which Atiku and his party were dissatisfied with, had dismissed their petition challenging the outcome of the February 23, 2019 poll.
Subsequently, the petitioners, on September 23, 2019, filed 66 grounds of appeal before the Supreme Court to challenge the judgment of the tribunal.
They prayed the Supreme Court to nullify Buhari’s victory and either order that Atiku be declared as the valid winner of the poll or order the Independent National Electoral Commission to conduct a fresh presidential election.
Every election result has been contested since Nigeria returned to democracy in 1999, with the exception of the 2015 vote in which Goodluck Jonathan conceded defeat to Buhari.
-The Rainbow, with online reports
