There has been much anxiety as the Supreme Court today, Thursday, would deliver judgment on the appeals by the presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, and the Labour Party, Peter Obi, respectively over the February 25 presidential election which saw the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), declaring President Bola Tinubu as the winner of the election.
Since the results declared by INEC, Atiku, Obi who came second and third respectively, and their respective parties have declared their resistance against outcome, vowing to explore all legal means to fight to the last.
Not agreeing with the verdict delivered by the Presidential Election Tribunal Court which in September upheld the victory of President Tinubu as declared by the INEC, the duo had approached the Supreme Court to appeal the judgement, praying the apex court to set aside the judgment by the tribunal court.
Atiku had in his legal adventure strove vehemently on grounds of falsification of documents presented by Tinubu, harping much on alleged certificate forgery from the Chicago State University (CSU) where Tinubu claimed to have graduated from.
Atiku upon securing a US court ruling ordering the CSU to produce academic records of Tinubu, had prayed the Supreme Court to allow him fresh facts on the ground that Tinubu forged the certificate he presented to INEC.
In his response, Tinubu had described the application as “abusive in nature” and prayed for its dismissal.
Tinubu is also challenging the application for the introduction of fresh evidence.
Tinubu is arguing the allegation of certificate forgery was not introduced in Abubakar’s petition at the tribunal, and thus, his academic records obtained from CSU cannot be considered by the Supreme Court.
Among several issues raised by Atiku in the legal battle, it was alleged that the election was fraught with irregularities and substantial non-compliance with the Electoral Act.
Also alleged is that Tinubu and Vice-President Kashim Shettima were not qualified to contest and did not win the election by the majority of lawful votes cast.
The court had on Monday in its ruling, told Atiku to prove the allegation of certificate forgery levelled against Tinubu beyond reasonable doubt.
The apex court stated this following the submission of Atiku’s lead counsel, Chris Uche, SAN, urging the court to admit the fresh evidence brought by the petitioners.
After the heated arguments, the Supreme Court will on Thursday (today) deliver the final judgement which would lay the legal battle to rest.
Of the three petitions that were entered at the Supreme Court, only two of them made it to the last lap of the litigation.
A seven-man panel of the apex court had last Monday, dismissed the case the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) instituted to nullify President Tinubu’s election victory, after the party reluctantly withdrew its appeal which the panel insisted was academic and of no useful legal purpose.
Consequently, the surviving appeals were those of Atiku and Obi.
All the parties adopted their final briefs of argument on Monday, as a seven-man panel of the Supreme Court is expected to deliver judgement Thursday (today). The justices on the list include Justice John Inyang Okoro, Justice Uwani Musa Abba-Aji, Justice Mohammed Lawal Garba, Justice Ibrahim Saulawa, Justice Adamu Jauro, Justice Tijjani Abubakar, and Justice Emmanuel Agim.
While the expected judgement has put many to suspense, the contending parties have expressed hope they would emerge on the victorious side by the judgement.