President Bola Tinubu has told his aides that their jobs are secure.

The nation’s number one citizen said this while responding to the affirmation of his victory by the Supreme Court.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Tinubu, who contested under the All Progressives Congress (APC) as winner of the election, but his opponents headed for the court.

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The Presidential Election Petition Tribunal had struck out the suits of Peter Obi of Labour Party and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for lack of merit.

Reacting to the unanimous decision of the seven-member panel, some aides of the president rushed into his office to congratulate him.

The president, who was attending to some files on his table, paused and said, “Thank you very much!”, adding, “Your jobs are secure”.

The Supreme Court has dismissed the appeal of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and affirmed the ruling of the Presidential Elections Petitions Tribunal that upheld the victory of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress in the February 25, 2023 election.

The seven-man panel led by Justice Inyang Okoro held that the appeal lacked merit and “is hereby dismissed”.

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In the notice of appeal, Atiku had urged the apex court to dismiss and set aside the September 6 judgement of PEPT, which affirmed the victory of President Tinubu.

But the panel in a unanimous judgment on Thursday held that the appeal lacked merit and ought to be dismissed.

“The election of the second respondent (Tinubu) is hereby upheld,” Justice Okoro said.

Earlier, the apex court resolved the seven issues raised by Atiku, including the non-transmission of election results, 25 percent score in the FCT, admission of fresh CSU evidence, removal of some paragraphs and witnesses and use of disparaging words by justices of the lower court in favour of Tinubu.

The court also dismissed Atiku’s application to file fresh evidence against President Bola Tinubu.

Atiku had asked the court to allow him file the evidence obtained from Tinubu’s record at Chicago State University.

The PDP Presidential Candidate had argued that Tinubu submitted forged documents to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

But Tinubu objected on the grounds that Atiku made the plea outside the 180 days stipulated period.

In his ruling, Justice Okoro said the time allotted to election petitions is fixed like the “Rock of Gibraltar” that cannot be extended or expanded.

He said, “It has to be noted that the 180 days imposed is immutable and cannot be extended… Election petitions are sui generis and have their own peculiarities… the court below lost its jurisdiction to determine any matter concerning the petition after the 180 days which expired on September 17. This court cannot do what the lower court is no longer constitutionally allowed to do by section 285 of the constitution.”

“No amendment can be made introducing new facts not contained in the election petition as stated in section 132(7) of the Electoral Act. This application clearly runs foul of the Electoral Act.”

The Supreme Court has struck out the appeal of Peter Obi, Presidential Candidate of Labour Party in the February 25 election.

In its ruling on Thursday, the seven-member panel held that the issues canvassed by Obi were the same as that of Atiku Abubakar, Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), thus there was no need for a repeat.

Earlier, the court had struck out Atiku’s appeal for lack of merit.

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Justice Inyang Okoro held that Atiku failed to prove that he won the election, stating that there was no alternative figure of votes to counter that validly declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The Supreme Court said it can’t manufacture votes in support of Atiku and PDP.

The apex court dismissed all the grounds of appeal of Atiku and PDP on qualification, non-compliance with the Electoral Act, the 25% votes in FCT, and electoral malpractices.

The court sat over Obi’s appeal for about five minutes.

Regarding Obi’s petition on double nomination of Vice-President Kashim Shettima, the court held that the issue had been dealt with in its ruling on 26th May 2023.

It held that it could not allow the matter to be relitigated.

“There must be an end to litigation. This matter ought not to have raised. This court has settled this matter when the petition was pending before PEPC. This appeal lacks merit and his hereby dismissed,” it held.

“It is our decision that this appeal shall abide with the decision in that of Atiku.”

All members of the panel of judges agreed that Obi’s petition was devoid of merit.

The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected the attempt of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to submit fresh evidence to nullify the election of President Bola Tinubu.

Justice John Inyang Okoro, chairman of the 7-man panel, said Atiku’s attempt to bring fresh evidence on whether Tinubu has authentic diploma from the Chicago State University would elongate the judgement.

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He then said this would return the country to the old dark days, adding that the apex court has no jurisdiction to accept fresh evidence.

“It will be unfortunate to go back to the dark old days when election petitions could be heard up to the point of expiration of the tenure of the person whose election was being challenged,” Justice Okoro said.

He said Atiku’s attempt to introduce fresh evidence to extend the time to adjudicate the case

“Consequently, since the Presidential Election court has no jurisdiction to entertain fresh evidence, the Supreme Court has no jurisdiction to accept fresh evidence,” Justice Okoro added.

The Supreme Court has held that the failure by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to transmit election results live did not affect the outcome of the election as the IREV is not a results collation system.

The seven-member panel presided by Justice Inyang Okoro said the non-transmission of the results could not warrant the nullification of the result of the presidential election.    Advertorial

Justice Okoro read the lead judgment in the appeal by the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar.

“It is my opinion that the failure to transmit results to the IREV did not affect the result of the election. This issue is resolved in favour of the respondents,” Justice Okoro held.

Justice Okoro further held that the issue of IREV can only arise where the hard copy of the results do not exist.

Moreso, he held that Atiku did not tender original or duplicate copies of results that shows the non-compliance.

Justice Okoro also dismissed the issue of the 25 percent requirement for Abuja as a non-issue.

Daily Gazette correspondent who is currently in Supreme Court reports that there is tight security in and out of the apex court.

As at the time of filling this report, lawyers, stakeholders of the concerned political parties are making entry into the venue as the legal battle over who won the February 25 presidential election will be over today.

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The candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP), Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi respectively are challenging the outcome of the poll that produced President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The Presidential Election Petitions Court had, on September 6, dismissed Atiku and Obi’s petitions for lack of evidence, but the duo later filed appeals.

Atiku and Obi, through their lawyers, Chris Uche and Livy Uzoukwu respectively, had, on Monday, argued their cases before the seven-member panel of the Supreme Court led by Justice Inyang Okoro; while the appeal of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) and its presidential candidate, Chichi Ojei, through their counsel, Chukwuma Maachukwu-Ume, was dismissed after they withdrew it. Atiku and Obi’s appeals were predicated on four major grounds.

These included whether the use of technology in the transmission and the collation of results was mandatory; whether Sections 134(2)(b), 2(2), 3(1) and 299 of the Nigerian Constitution made it mandatory for the president to score 25 percent of votes in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Other grounds were whether the president’s forfeiture of $460,000 to a United States District Court of the Northern District of Illinois disqualifies him from seeking the office under Section 137(1)(d) of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria and whether the president was disqualified as a result of double nomination of his running mate.

There was an additional issue raised by Atiku on whether leave could be granted admitting fresh evidence being depositions on Tinubu’s academic records from the Chicago State University.

Atiku and his party had also contended that the lower court was wrong in expunging some paragraphs of their petition and witnesses’ statements on oath in aid of their petition on the grounds that they were subpoenaed during the trial and not frontloaded along with the petition.

They had also contended that the panel’s use of “disparaging words” in dealing with their petition as provided by the Revised Code for Judicial Officers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, promulgated by the National Judicial Council was a miscarriage of justice.

“The lower court was wrong in striking out paragraphs of the petition and replies of the appellants; the lower court sacrificed substantial justice on the altar of technicalities,” Atiku’s lawyer had argued.

Obi, on his part, had submitted that the lower court erred for rejecting his evidence of 18,088 certified blurred polling unit results, including 8,123 blurred and blank copies of unreadable images produced by INEC, which specifically comprised hundreds of results from Kaduna, Gombe, Bauchi and others.

In their replies, Tinubu and the APC, through their lawyers, SANs Wole Olanipekun and Akin Olujinmi, had asked the Supreme Court to dismiss Atiku and Obi’s appeals “for constituting an abuse of the court process and lacking merit.”

Olanipekun also requested the apex court to decline the jurisdiction on accepting any fresh evidence as the 180 days under the law to hear election petitions had passed.

Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja on Wednesday sacked the member representing Katsina Central Federal Constituency, Sani Danlami Aliyu of the All Progressives Congress, APC over forgery of his first school leaving testimonial.

Daily Gazette recall that the national assembly election petitions tribunal sitting in Kastina state had upheld the declaration of Danlami Aliyu and dismissed the petition filed by the PDP candidate in that election, Aminu Ahmed Chindo.

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Dissatisfied with the rulling of the tribunal, PDP and her candidate approached the appeal court seeking the reliefs sought in their petition.

Delivering her judgment on the appeal, the appellate Court upturned the decision of the lower court and voided the return made by INEC.

The three man justices in a unanimous judgment agreed with the Petitioners that the lawmaker presented a forged, fake and unoriginal first school leaving testimonial to the Independent National Electoral Commission and subsequently nullified his election.

Similarly, the Appeal Court also upheld the declaration of Hon. Abubakar Yahaya of APC by the trial tribunal in Katsina State for Kankia/Kusada/Ingawa Federal Constituency against Ismail Dalha of the Peoples Democratic Party who was found guilty of submitting a forged Primary School Leaving certificate to INEC.

The court emphasised that the best evidence is from the issuer of the document and that the testimony of the issuer is final in determination of forgery.

On front-loading of subpoenaed witnesses, the court held that the testimony of OFFICIAL witnesses cannot be front-loaded and should be accepted whenever they are subpoenaed to appear by the Court.

The Sokoto State Election Petition Tribunal, on Wednesday, dismissed the petition, challenging the election of former Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal as Senator of the Sokoto South Senatorial districts.

The petition was filed by Senator Ibrahim Danbaba of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Danbaba urged the court to declare the election inconclusive for not complying substantially with the provisions of the electoral Act.

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He further prayed the court to order rerun election in twenty eight (28) polling units where he alleged election were not held during the February and April substantive and supplementary election.

The tribunal in a unanimous judgment by the 3-member panel led by Justice Denis Echesi dismissed the petition which it said lacked merit.

According to the court, the petitioner had presented documents and evidences which were not reliable.

The tribunal also awarded the cost of two hundred thousand naira each to the first and second respondents, the PDP and Aminu Waziri Tambuwal.

Reacting, counsel to the former Governor, Sulieman Usman, hailed the judgement which he said spoke the minds of the entire people of Southern Sokoto.

However, counsel to the petitioner, Mr Chris Ndeoyiro, said they will wait for the copy of the judgement, review it content and take the next line of action.