The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in the February 23 Presidential Elections, Atiku Abubakar and his party were on Friday absent in court when the apex court gave reasons for the dismissal of their appeal challenging the election of President Muhammadu Buhari. The Supreme Court, explaining why they lost their appeal against the court verdict regarding said the appellants failed to prove their case in court.
Atiku and PDP had appealed the judgment of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, which dismissed their appeal against the emergence of Buhari as winner of the presidential election. However the court in its judgment of October 30, dismissed the appeal on grounds that it lacked merit, but said the reason behind the judgment would be given at a later date.
But when the matter was called, there were no appearances for both Atiku and the PDP; neither was there any legal representation, forcing counsel to the second respondent to apologize on behalf of the appellants. In a quick response, Justice John Okoro who led two other Justices, held that the court would go ahead to give its reasons notwithstanding the absence of the appellants.
The apex court said all allegations raised by Atiku and the PDP challenging Buhari’s victory were unproven. Atiku, a former Vice President, who contested the election against claimed he won the election. Justice Okoro said this while giving reasons why the apex court on Oct.30 dismissed the appellants’ appeal that challenged the judgment of the presidential tribunal.
The appellants had claimed that the tribunal erred in addressing all the issues raised in petition. The issues brought before the tribunal bordered on the qualification, electoral malpractice, and transmission of election results electronically, among others. In the circumstance, the appellant prayed the tribunal to rule all the issues in their favor and to go head and return Atiku as winner of the election.
However, Okoro, who provided the definitive reasons by seven-man panel of justices, led by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Tanko Muhammad also held that: “the appeal lacked any scintilla of merit and therefore needed to be dismissed’’.
On allegations on the president’s qualification, Okoro said Buhari was eminently qualified to contest the election as sufficient evidence was adduced to confirm both his educational and candidature status that were accepted by INEC. Okoro, therefore, upheld the decision of the tribunal on the issues around the president’s qualification and possession of relevant certificates was legendary.
The judge also said that Buhari was not liable of any irregularities and corrupt practices before, during and after the election as claimed by the appellants. He also said the president was not under any obligations to attach his credentials to his INEC nomination form as contested by the appellants, adding that such demand was not provided for by the Constitution.
On the allegation of the use of server by INEC in transmitting results of the election to a central point, Okoro, said PDP and Atiku failed woefully by not providing evidence to substantiate such an allegation.
“They were wrong to have relied on the so called results obtained from a website not maintained by the electoral umpire, adding that the claim by Atiku that he won the election based on information from such a clandestine source was questionable. I agree entirely with the court below that the appellants failed to prove that INEC has the server from which they got their figures. As a result, all the results, calculations and analysis based on the results from such a source that did not belong to INEC are of no moment,” the judge said.
On allegations of over voting, violence and malpractices, Okoro held that the failure of the appellants to call credible witnesses was fatal to their case, adding that five witnesses invited to prove such allegations was unimaginable.
The apex court said Atiku and the PDP should have presented 250, 000 witnesses before the 2019 election tribunal to prove its case. “The appellant cannot just call witnesses,” Justice Okoro who joined two other panelists to explain the court’s decision said “He has to call witnesses who are eyewitnesses and he may have to call 250, 000 witnesses.”
According to the judge, most of the issues raised by the appellants were based on to prove hearsay evidence, adding that the apex court could not grant prayers that were not proven beyond reasonable doubt. “We are of the conviction that the lower court did a good job based on the evidence brought before it by the appellants. We also unanimously dismissed the appeal as all five issues remained unproven,’’ the judge said.
