Court of Appeal upholds Tinubu’s election

The appeal court on Wednesday upheld the election of Bola Tinubu as president of Nigeria, ending months-long wait for a judicial pronouncement on the outcome of bitterly fought poll of Feb. 25.

The Court of Appeal, which offers the first level hearing in presidential election disputes, said Mr Tinubu who was sworn into office on May 29, satisfied requirements to be nominated as a candidate of the All Progressives Congress, and was duly elected as president.

In separate rulings lasting about 12 hours, the five-member panel of judges, led by Haruna Tsammani, dismissed all the points raised by the major opposition parties, Peoples Democratic Party and Labour Party, and their candidates, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi.

The two parties had challenged the declaration by the Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec) that Mr Tinubu won 37% of the votes, ahead of Mr Abubakar’s 29% and Mr Obi’s 25%.

They questioned Mr Tinubu’s eligibility to run in the election, the legality of his running mate’s nomination, the fairness of the election process, and the criteria used by INEC to declare Mr. Tinubu as the victor.

They urged the court to consider two potential remedies: either declare them as the rightful winners of the election or call for a new election. In the event that the court opts for a fresh election, they have requested that Mr. Tinubu and his party, the APC, be prohibited from participating.

Prayers and rulings

The 2023 presidential election, which featured 18 candidates, was marred by irregularities, and voter suppression. One of the stickiest points of the poll was the failure of the by Inec to publish results from polling units in real time as it promised. Hours after Mr Tinubu was declared winner on Feb. 28, only 26% of election results from polling centres had not been updated on Inec’s website, contrary to its guidelines.

While Inec claimed its systems suffered “technical glitches and refused to provide details of the nature of hitch, opposition parties said failing to upload the election results in real time allowed election results to be tampered with.

The judges said the failure of a process to follow guidelines did not necessarily mean it was fraudulent. The panel ruled that although Inec promised to publish election results real time, there was no law mandating the electoral body to do so.

“There is no provision for the electronic transmission of election results in the Electoral Act 2022,” lead judge Haruna Tsammani said.

The parties had also argued that Mr Tinubu did not score 25% of the votes in the federal capital Abuja, making him ineligible to be declared president. They also vigorously demanded the disqualification of Mr Tinubu from a possible rerun, citing a forfeiture against him by United States’ authorities in a drug related case.

In the ruling Wednesday, the five-member panel rejected the argument that 25% of votes is required in Abuja to win as president. They said that logic was “fallacious.”

The panel said Mr Tinubu was not convicted in the United States, and as such, remained eligible to contest. According to the tribunal, civil forfeiture is not a conviction or a criminal charge.

The panel also dismissed another leg of the case on technicalities, saying Mr Tinubu’s reported Guinean citizenship did not matter as the evidence to that effect was not properly submitted.

It was not immediately clear if the PDP of the LP will appeal the ruling at the Supreme Court.

The ruling was handed under tight security, with roads to court of appeal headquarters in Abuja closed, and judges kept off the cameras during a live transmission of proceedings on national television.

This year’s presidential election was keenly watched after the dramatic rise of the Labour Party following Mr Obi’s emergence as its flagbearer. Mr Obi galvanized hordes of young Nigerians seeking change after eight difficult years of former President Muhammadu Buhari.