The appeals court appears set to uphold the election of Bola Tinubu as Nigeria’s president as its presidential election panel has dismissed the key arguments raised by opposition parties against Mr Tinubu.
Mr Tinubu was declared winner of the Feb. 25 election, which was marred by irregularities.
The Peoples Democratic Party and the Labour Party rejected the results, and accused the Independent National Electoral Commission of failing to transmit results from polling stations electronically as stipulated in its guidelines, saying the results declared had been tampered with.
The parties also argued that Mr Tinubu did not score 25% of the votes in the federal capital Abuja, making him ineligible to be declared president.
The two parties 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 an ongoing ruling Wednesday, the five-member panel rejected the argument that 25% of votes is required in Abuja to win as president. They said that requirement was “irrelevant.”
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.
For the U.S. case, 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 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.
The ruling is ongoing and this report will be updated.
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