Nigeria’s Supreme Court Wednesday dismissed the Peoples Democratic Party’s presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar’s appeal for lacking merit. “We have examined all the briefs and the exhibits for over two weeks and we agree that there is no merit in this appeal,” Chief Justice, Tanko Muhammad said at the judgement. “The appeal is dismissed,” he concluded, in a unanimous decision with six court justices.
Atiku challenged the presidential election tribunal judgment which affirmed the victory of President Muhammadu Buhari’s victory at the February 2019 poll. The tribunal in its judgment delivered by its chairman Justice Mohammed Garba dismissed Atiku’s petition in its “entirety.”
Atiku approached the Supreme Court shortly after the September 11 tribunal’s ruling with 66 reasons why the Supreme Court should upturn the tribunal’s five-man panel decision. The Supreme Court, however, convened a seven-man panel to hear PDP and Atiku’s appeal.
On the panel were the Chief Justice of Nigeria Justice Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad, Justice Bode Rhodes -Vivour, Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, Justice John Iyang Okoro, Justice Musa Datijo Muhammad, Justice Ejembi Eko and Justice Uwani Abaji.
But after the panel apportioned a maximum of 15 minutes to the counsel to argue his appeal, admonished him to go directly into the main appeal since such matters also formed part of the main appeal. The counsel stood his ground, causing the court to adjourn for 15 minutes to enable the appellants’ defence team to decide on what to do with their time. On resumption of the hearing, the seven-man panel unanimously dismissed the Atiku’s appeal saying it lacked “merit.”
In reaction, Atiku described the judgment as a part of the “challenges” Nigeria must survive. “While I believe that only God is infallible everywhere, and only Nigerians are infallible in our democracy, I must accept that the judicial route I chose to take, as a democrat, has come to a conclusion,” Atiku Abubakar wrote on Twitter, hours after the Supreme Court sealed his fate.
The ruling brings an end to an eight-month bitter legal battle since the delayed presidential poll in February. Every election result has been contested unsuccessfully since Nigeria returned to democracy in 1999, with the exception of the 2015 poll in which Goodluck Jonathan conceded defeat to Buhari.
The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) hailed the verdict; saying in a statement by its national publicity secretary, Lanre Issa-Onilu, that the apex court was apt in dismissing the appeal for lacking merit. He urged the PDP and Atiku to jettison their disruptive agenda against Nigeria, which he alleged they had planned to pursue for the next four years.
The PDP expressed shock in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, saying it was awaiting the Supreme Court to release the details of its judgment to see how it arrived at it. He contended that what was witnessed in the judgment was not what majority of Nigerians who participated and observed the presidential election expected, including the APC.
He said that the PDP indeed made a solid case, with indisputable evidence, showing that Abubakar won the Presidential election. Ologbondiyan said the party was as such surprised that the justices of the Supreme Court held otherwise. “However, that is the highest court of the land. Notwithstanding, the distinction of our case remains for Nigerians, including generations yet unborn, to appreciate,” he stated.
