Supreme Court Reserves Judgement in Atiku/Obi’s Appeal on 2023 Presidential Poll
The Supreme Court has reserved its judgement on the appeal filed by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP), challenging the judgement of the Presidential Poll Tribunal which upheld the election of President Bola Tinubu.
The apex court’s seven-member panel, with Justice John Okoro leading, announced that they would communicate the judgment date to all parties involved after listening to the counsel’s presentation.
Previously, the panel had dismissed the appeal of the allied people movement, who sought to disqualify Tinubu from the 2023 Presidential Poll, citing improper nomination of his running mate, Senator Kashim Shettima.
In his presentation, Chief Chris Uche, the lead counsel to the PDP presidential candidate, asked the court to grant his motion to file new evidence from the Chicago State University and the appeal against the tribunal’s judgement.
Also, counsel to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Abubakar Mohammed, Chief Wole Olanipekin for Tinubu and Chief Akin Olujinmi for the All Progressives Congress (APC) had called for the dismissal of the PDP motion and appeal for lacking in merit.
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In another development, the Supreme Court on Monday dismissed the appeal brought before it by the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) against the judgement of the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) delivered on September 6.
The court dismissed the appeal following an application for its withdrawal by APM’s lead counsel, Chukwuma-Machukwu Ume.
APM had argued that Tinubu was not qualified to contest the February 25 presidential election, having violated the provisions of Section 142 (1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended).
The party also prayed for a declaration that the return of Tinubu by INEC as the President-elect of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is null and void; and that the withdrawal of the 5th respondent, Kabiru Masari, as Vice Presidential candidate to Tinubu, by the operations of the law, amounted to the automatic withdrawal and invalidation of the candidate of the APC. The party had asked for an order nullifying and voiding all votes scored by APC in the presidential election of February 25.
The party also applied for an order directing INEC to return the candidate with the second highest votes at the election as the winner of the presidential election.
