President Bola Tinubu has asked the Supreme Court to dismiss an appeal by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate in the 2023 presidential election, Atiku Abubakar, seeking to nullify his election victory.
In the 42-page document filed on Thursday, Tinubu asked the court to uphold the decision of the Court of Appeal of September 6 which dismissed the joint petition Atiku and the PDP had filed against him after the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) had upheld his victory.
The president’s legal team insisted that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had correctly pronounced him the winner of the disputed presidential election of February 25, after he received a plurality of the votes and at least 25% of the total votes cast in 29 states of the federation.
Atiku, Nigeria’s former Vice President, had, however, gone to court claiming he won the election, even though he secured only at least 25% of the total votes cast in 21 states of the federation, as against the constitutional requirement of 24.7 states, which is the mathematical results of two-thirds of the 36 states of the federation and the FCT.
Part of Tinubu’s argument reads:
“The hyperbolic character of the forgoing allegations was exposed by the petition itself, which had no facts in support thereof.
“Starting from the allegation of non-qualification of the Respondent, all that the Appellants submitted to the lower court through their petition was that the 2nd Respondent (Tinubu) was at the time of the election, not qualified to contest the election not having the constitutional threshold.
“While they also claimed to have won the highest number of votes cast at the election, as against INEC’s declaration, throughout their petition, they did not suggest an alternative score which they considered correct, whether for themselves or the Respondent.
“Though they had alleged that the election was riddled with non-compliance and corrupt practices, the paragraphs of their petition putting up these allegations were nothing short of vague, imprecise, generic and nebulous.”
President Tinubu also told the apex court that whereas Atiku raised issue of non-transmission of results, all the witnesses he brought before the PEPC, “agreed that the election went very smoothly, where INEC complied with all the prescribed procedures.”
He, therefore, urged the Supreme Court to dismiss Atiku’s appeal as “lacking in merit and to affirm the election and return of the Respondent by INEC as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, having scored highest number of lawful votes cast and fulfilling all constitutional requirements.”