The Presidential Election Petitions Court upheld the election of Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as President of Nigeria on Wednesday.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) returned Tinubu as the duly elected by majority of valid votes cast in the election on February 25, 2023, and the Tribunal found that the petitioner, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, had failed to establish the allegations against this ground and, in fact, all the grounds in their petition.
Justice Haruna Tsammani, leader of the five-man panel in a unanimous judgement said, “This petition accordingly lacks merit. I affirm the return of Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the duly elected President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The parties are to bear their cost.”
The court also expunged 37 exhibits tendered by the witnesses from the court’s records.
On the issue of dumping of documents on the court, he held that this would only go to the weight to be attached to such evidence.
On the issue of Tinubu’s conviction and the issue of his dual citizenship, the Tribunal again held like it earlier did that this issues were incompetent and liable to be struck out and same were indeed struck out.
Tinubu’s election campaign, which saw him as the flagbearer for the APC, was marked by intense competition and high stakes. The 2023 presidential election was a pivotal moment in Nigeria’s democratic history, with citizens keenly watching the developments and the subsequent legal proceedings.
