Updated: Supreme Court affirms Buhari’s election victory

The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed the appeal filed by the presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, and his party against the judgment of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal which upheld President Muhammadu Buhari’s victory in the February 23 general election.

Atiku and his party had filed a 66-ground of appeal before the Supreme Court, challenging the judgment of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, which affirmed Buhari’s election. The tribunal had said Buhari was not only qualified, but eminently qualified to contest the post of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in the said election.

In their final submission on Wednesday, Levi Uzoukwu, the lead counsel for Atiku and PDP, submitted that Buhari did not make any effort to tender his original certificates, photocopies or certified copies in the course of the trial.

He stated further that the certificate cadet officer course Buhari said he attended was not also tendered in court, which made his academic qualifications speculative. He insisted that a server existed where the result of the election was stored.

“There is something curious about the case, the respondents are relying on Section (52(2) of the Electoral Act to contend that electronic election is prohibited in this country,” Uzoukwu said.

In dismissing the appeal, the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Ibrahim Tanko Mohammad, who led other six justices of the apex court, said the appeal was lacking in merit.

“Having gone through the appeal in this past two weeks, we found the appeal lacking in merit. It is thereby dismissed,” said the CJN.

He said reasons would be adduced later on why the appeal was struck out.

Reacting to the judgment, Atiku Abubakar said the judiciary has been sabotaged and undermined by a dictatorial cabal.

“It is said that the Supreme Court is not final because it is infallible, but that it is infallible because it is final,” Atiku said in a statement signed on Wednesday.

He further stated that while he believes “that only God is infallible everywhere, and only Nigerians are infallible in our democracy, I must accept that the judicial route I chose to take, as a democrat, has concluded”.

He said the Nigerian judiciary, just like “every estate of our realm”, has been sabotaged and undermined by an overreaching and dictatorial cabal, who has undone almost all the democratic progress the PDP and its administrations nurtured for 16 years up until 2015.

“Can Nigeria continue like this?” Atiku questioned. “Recently, former United States Assistant Secretary of State for Africa, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, averred that Nigeria had rolled back the democratic gains she made in 2015.”

“Today, the nail has been put on the coffin and the gains we collectively made since 1999 are evaporating, and a requiem is at hand,” Atiku said.

Atiku and PDP had filed for an appeal on five grounds. They alleged, among other things, that the panel of the presidential election tribunal erred in law “when they relied on ‘overall interest of justice’, to hold that the 2nd Respondent’s Exhibits R1 to R26, P85, and P86 were properly admitted in evidence”.

Meanwhile, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the main opposition PDP are in disagreement over the Supreme Court’s decision.

While APC welcomed the decision, the PDP said Buhari’s victory at Supreme Court was a total sham because the justices upturned justice.

“With the ruling of the Supreme Court, which has finally affirmed President Buhari’s election victory, we enjoin the PDP and Atiku to jettison their destructive and disruptive agenda against Nigeria,” Lanre Issa-Onilu, APC national publicity secretary, said in a statement in Abuja.

Issa-Onilu said PDP and Atiku should not confuse opposition politics for their unpatriotic agenda, insisting that democratic politics cannot be practiced in the state of anarchy and confusion which the PDP and Atiku wish to achieve.

On its part, the PDP expressed shock that the apex court did not award victory to the party and its presidential candidate.

“Indeed, what we witnessed today was not what majority of Nigerians, who participated and observed the presidential election, expected, and this includes even members of the APC. Notwithstanding, the distinction of our case remains for Nigerians, including generations yet unborn, to appreciate,” the party said.