Supreme Court Declares Bola Tinubu as President

The Supreme Court of Nigeria has affirmed the victory of President Bola Tinubu in the presidential election held on February 25.

The apex court, in its ruling, stated that there was no merit in the petition filed by former President Atiku Abubakar, who was the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Atiku had sought to nullify the election outcome, claiming that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) did not substantially comply with the provisions of the Electoral Act.

The Supreme Court held that Atiku did not prove that the alleged non-compliance substantially affected the outcome of the election.

It emphasised the difference between the election result collation system and the INEC Results Viewing Portal (IReV), stating that the non-transmission of results to the IReV portal could not be a reason for nullifying the election.

The court also noted that Atiku failed to provide evidence of a miscarriage of justice and that most of the witnesses he presented gave “inadmissible hearsay” evidence.

The Supreme Court affirmed the lower court’s judgement, declaring President Tinubu as the winner of the election.

President Tinubu had won the presidential contest with 8,794,726 votes, followed by Atiku with 6,984,520 votes, and Peter Obi of the Labour Party with 6,101,533 votes.

The Supreme Court’s ruling has put an end to the legal challenges to the presidential election results.

Source: Vanguard News