President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, or APC, was declared the legitimate winner of the nation's February 25 presidential election by the Supreme Court on Thursday.
In a lead ruling drafted and read by Justice Inyang Okoro, the supreme court determined that the case filed by former presidential candidate and PDP nominee Alhaji Atiku Abubakar to overturn the election's results lacked validity.
According to the ruling, Atiku was unable to provide evidence that the Independent National Electoral Commission, or INEC, had conducted the election in a way that did not substantially adhere to the requirements of the Electoral Act.
- The supreme court ruled that when purported noncompliance did not materially impact the result of an election, an election should not be susceptible to invalidation under section 185(1) of the Evidence Act.
- It concluded that evidence in the appeal's record demonstrated that the appellants had abandoned their legal obligation to demonstrate both the purported noncompliance and the fact that INEC's failure to disseminate the election results via its IReV portal affected the result of the presidential contest.
- The Supreme Court stated that it had made it evident in earlier rulings that the election result collation mechanism and the IReV portal were not the same.
"In the event that the IReV portal malfunctions, the manual collation process that was carried out until the most recent election continues," the court said.
After the verdict, Peter Obi said to his followers, the Obidients "Since the Tribunal verdict, there has been a note of general despair among the Obidients and the generality of our supporters. I assure you all that on this journey, despair or surrender is not in our options.
Today, I want to personally reach out and encourage you all to keep hope alive. Considering the challenges that lie ahead of us as a movement, despair is not an option. Nothing good in life comes easy. Throughout history, positive changes come only with sacrifices, perseverance, resilience and fluctuating fortunes. Right from the onset of our journey, I told you all that the journey upon which we were about to embark was not a short sprint, but a long and tough marathon. It was always going to be difficult, painful and excruciating.
We set out knowing fully well that the forces we are up against are entrenched and formidable but not insurmountable. They would resist the wind of change and try to push us into surrender or despair. We must not succumb to their design."
Atiku Abubakar, one of the Nigerian presidential aspirants, is yet to comment on the issue.