The presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, Abubakar Atiku has approached the Supreme Court to nullify the judgment of the Presidential Election Petition Court, which on September 6, upheld the declaration of Bola Tinubu as winner of the 2023 presidential election.
Also, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, has appealed against the tribunal judgement which upheld the victory of President Tinubu.
Atiku in the Notice of Appeal predicated on 35 grounds, insisted that the tribunal in the judgment delivered by Justice Haruna Simon Tsammani committed grave error and miscarriage of justice in its findings and conclusion in the petition challenging the declaration of Tinubu as President by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
The Notice of Appeal filed by Atiku’s lead counsel, Chris Uche, SAN, is praying the Supreme Court to set aside the whole findings and conclusions of the Tribunal on the grounds that they did not represent the true picture of the grounds of his petition.
Amongst others, the former Vice President maintained that the Tribunal erred in law when it failed to nullify the presidential election held on February 25, 2023 on the grounds of non-compliance with the Electoral Act, 2022, when by evidence before the tribunal, INEC conducted the election based on grave and gross misrepresentation contrary to the principles of the Electoral Act 2022, based on the “doctrine of legitimate expectation”.
Obi in a 50 grounds notice of appeal by his lead counsel, Livy Uzoukwu, SAN, is also challenging the decision of the presidential election tribunal.
The notice of appeal partly read, “Take notice that the Appellants being dissatisfied with the decisions in PETITION NO: CA/PEPC/03/2023 MR. PETER GREGORY OBI & ANOR. v. INDEPENDENT NATIONAL ELECTORAL COMMISSION & ORS. (consolidated with Election Petition Nos: CA/PEPC/04/2023 and CA/PEPC/05/2023), contained in pages 3-327 of the Judgment of the Court of Appeal sitting as the Presidential Election Petition Court, Holden at Abuja, Coram: H. S. Tsammani, Stephen Jonah Adah, Misitura Omodere Bolaji-Yusuff, Boloukuroma Moses Ugo and Abba Bello Mohammed, JJ.C.A. (“the Court below”) delivered on the 6th day of September 2023, and more particularly stated in paragraph 2 of this Notice of Appeal, do hereby appeal to the Supreme Court on the Grounds set out in Paragraph 3 and will at the hearing of the appeal seek the Reliefs sought in paragraph 4 herein.”
After a 13-hour ruling on September 6, the Presidential Election Petition Court validated the electoral victory of Tinubu and Kashim Shettima, at the 2023 presidential poll.
The panel described the petition filed by Obi and Atiku, as well as the Allied Peoples Movement, against the electoral victory as unmeritorious.
The Tribunal, headed by Justice Haruna Tsammani, in a marathon judgment on various aspects of the consolidated petitions filed by the petitioners, unanimously dismissed the petitions.
At exactly 9:55p.m., he said: “The petitions are hereby dismissed. I hereby affirm the declaration of Tinubu by INEC, as the duly elected president of Nigeria.”