The Supreme Court yesterday said all the allegations raised by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate in the 2019 presidential election, Mr. Atiku Abubakar, against President Muhammadu Buhari’s election were unproven.
Justice Inyang Okoro stated this while giving reasons the court had on October 30 dismissed the appellants’ appeal that challenged the judgment of the presidential election petition tribunal.
Atiku had claimed that he won the election.
NAN reports that the appellants had claimed that the tribunal erred in addressing all the issues raised in petition.
It would be recalled that the issues brought before the tribunal bordered on the qualification, electoral malpractice, and transmission of election results electronically, among others.
In the circumstance, the appellants prayed the tribunal to rule all the issues in their favour and to go head and return Atiku as winner of the election.
However, Okoro, who provided the definitive reasons by a seven-man panel of justices, led by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Tanko Muhammad also held that: “the appeal lacked any scintilla of merit and therefore needed to be dismissed.’’
On allegations on the president’s qualification, Okoro said Buhari was eminently qualified to contest the election as sufficient evidence was adduced to confirm both his educational and candidature status that were accepted by INEC.
Okoro, therefore, upheld the decision of the tribunal on the issues around the president’s qualification and possession of relevant certificates was legendary.
The judge also said that Buhari was not liable of any irregularities and corrupt practices before, during and after the election as claimed by the appellants.
He also said the president was not under any obligations to attach his credentials to his INEC nomination form as contested by the appellants, adding that such demand was not provided for by the Constitution.
On the allegation of the use of server by INEC in transmitting results of the election to a central point, Okoro, said PDP and Atiku failed woefully by not providing evidence to substantiate such an allegation.
“They were wrong to have relied on the so called results obtained from a website not maintained by the electoral umpire, adding that the claim by Atiku that he won the election based on information from such a clandestine source was questionable.
“I agree entirely with the court below that the appellants failed to prove that INEC has the server from which they got their figures.
“As a result, all the results, calculations and analysis based on the results from such a source that did not belong to INEC are of no moment,’’ the judge said.
On allegations of over voting, violence and malpractices, Okoro held that the failure of the appellants to call credible witnesses was fatal to their case, adding that five witnesses invited to prove such allegations was unimaginable.
According to the judge, most of the issues raised by the appellants were based on to prove hearsay evidence, adding that the apex court could not grant prayers that were not proven beyond reasonable doubt.
“We are of the conviction that the lower court did a good job based on the evidence brought before it by the appellants. We also unanimously dismissed the appeal as all five issues remained unproven,’’ the judge said.
Reacting to the reasons the Supreme Court gave for dismissing the appeals, the presidency said the ruling represented the “popular will” of Nigerians since Atiku and the PDP were unable to establish any case against Buhari’s victory.
According to ThisDay, the presidency, in a statement by Buhari’s media aide, Mr. Garba Shehu, called on the PDP to put the election behind it, adding that it was commendable that the party took the legal route to dispute the outcome of the poll up to the apex court.
“Now it is time for the PDP to take up the service mandated by this election. The legislative agenda of the Ninth Assembly is ambitious in both size and scope. It is critical that the opposition is there to scrutinise bills and policies, rather than preoccupy themselves with unsustainable court cases.
“We appreciate the PDP and their candidate for taking these claims to courts rather than expressing them in other ways, but now Nigeria needs a robust and rigorous opposition. The nation needs to move on.
“While it is correct to give credit to the courts for affirming this electoral victory-and we commend the courage of the bench to arrive at the right conclusion given manifest and subtle pressures to do otherwise-the reality is that courts were convinced by arguments from the lawyers representing the APC and its candidate, President Muhammadu Buhari that results reflect the true wishes of a majority of our citizens.
“President Buhari won four million more votes than his closest rival, Atiku Abubakar, in the February poll. No serious electoral observers have challenged this result. And now the Supreme Court has explained why the PDP appeal is unsubstantiated. We hope this finally puts the matter behind us. We should now grasp this moment to move forward, together,” said Shehu.
Also reacting, the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP), in a statement by its spokesman, Ikenga Ugochinyere, lamented that the nation’s democracy and electoral processes “have been set back to the dark ages.”
The coalition said the apex court has by this action today, “rewritten the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as Amended.”
