Profiles of the 5 Judges Set to Decide Tinubu, Atiku, Obi’s Fates Tomorrow

The eyes of the nation are fixed on the impending verdict of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, which is set to be delivered tomorrow. As the fate of key political figures hangs in the balance, it’s essential to take a closer look at the five judges who will make this pivotal decision. These jurists hold the responsibility of assessing the merits of the petitions filed by Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Atiku Abubakar, and Peter Obi, shaping the course of Nigerian politics.

Below are the list of judges of judges presiding over Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal.

1. Justice Haruna Tsammani

Justice Haruna Tsammani is the longest-serving Justice of the Court of Appeal on the five-man panel, Though this is his first time participating in the panel of a presidential election petition court, an opportunity that only a handful of judges in a generation are availed to be involved in. Justice Tsammani has presided over various election and financial matters as a judge. He also presided over the VAT case between the Rivers State Government and the federal government.
Justice Tsammani prepared the lead judgment that dismissed Abiola Ajimobi’s petition challenging the judgment of the 2019 Election Petition Tribunal which had on November 19, the same year, upheld PDP’s Kola Balogun as the winner of the senatorial election for Oyo South held on February that year for lacking in merit, holding that a person who was not part of a political party has no right to challenge the outcome of its primary election.

2. Justice Stephen Adah

Justice Stephen Adah was appointed a judge of the Federal High Court on November 12, 1998, and later elevated to the Court of Appeal on November 5, 2012. He served as a member of the three-man panel that granted Obi and Atiku’s motions to serve Tinubu their petitions by substituted means.
Adah has delivered verdicts on several cases and one of his landmark decisions was in the appeal filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in 2020 against a trial court’s decision which partially upheld the no-case submission filed by former President Goodluck Jonathan’s cousin, Robert Azibaola.

3. Jusice Monsurat Bolaji-Yusuf

Justice Monsurat was appointed a Judge of the High Court of Oyo State on January 30, 1997, and later elevated to the Court of Appeal on March 24, 2014. as a judge of the High Court of Oyo, Justice Bolaji-Yusuf issued an order that invalidated the steps taken by the then acting Chief Judge of Oyo, Justice Afolabi Adeniran, which led to the illegal removal of the then governor, Rashidi Ladoja.
Although the Acting Chief Judge withdrew the case from her, her ruling was the first major blow to the entire impeachment process which the Supreme Court would also later nullify. The Supreme Court declared the process null and void and reinstated Ladoja in its judgment delivered on November 11, 2006.
She also delivered the lead judgment of the three-man panel of the Benin Division of the Court of Appeal that affirmed the first-term election of Governor Godwin Obaseki in June 2017. She was on the panel that affirmed that candidates of the Obaseki-faction were the authentic candidates to participate in the 2023 elections.

4. Justice Boloukuoromo Ugo

Justice Boloukuoromo Ugo is the youngest among the judges on the panel of the Presidential Election Petition Court.
He was appointed a Judge of the High Court of Bayelsa State on March 21, 2006, and later elevated to the Court of Appeal on March 24, 2014.
Though judge, who is currently serving at the Kano Division of the Court of Appeal, is hardly visible in the media, many see his participation in the court panel as a pivotal turn in his career, placing him on a national, if not global stage where the public can gain insights into the workings of his judicial mind for the first time.

5. Justice Abba Mohammed

Justice Mohammed was appointed a judge of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court in 2010. After serving for about 10 years, he was promoted to the Court of Appeal on June 28, 2021. He was the Chairman of the Nasarawa State Governorship Election Tribunal in 2019.
The PDP governorship candidate in the 2019 general election, Hon. David Ombugadu had sued INEC and Governor Abdullahi Sule of the All Progressives Congress (APC). But Justice Mohammed dismissed the petition for lacking in merit, holding that the petitioner’s allegation of over-voting and electoral violence could not be substantiated. His participation in the Presidential Election Petition Court as a defining milestone in his profile.