The presidential election petition tribunal ruled on Wednesday that both Labour Party (LP) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) parties failed to prove claims of electoral malpractice against the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) in February’s disputed elections.
“This petition is hereby declared unmeritorious,” Justice Haruna Tsammani said, as the tribunal rejected the opposition challenge to Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s win in the presidential election.
The challenges came after one of Nigeria’s most tightly fought elections, in which former Lagos governor Tinubu won 37 per cent of the vote, beating Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party to secure the presidency of Africa’s most populous nation.
Abubakar and Obi had asked the court to invalidate the election, alleging irregularities.
Judges rejected all claims made by Labour Party candidate Obi, including fraud, charges electoral authorities broke the law and allegations Tinubu was ineligible to run.
The court was also reading its judgement on a second opposition party petition, which is also expected to be dismissed. Filed by PDP candidate Abubakar, it lays out similar complaints against the February 25 election results.
No legal challenge to the outcome of a presidential election has succeeded in Nigeria, which returned to democracy in 1999 after three decades of almost uninterrupted military rule and has a history of electoral fraud.
Atiku and Obi can appeal to the Supreme Court to strike down the tribunal’s ruling. Any appeal must be concluded within 60 days of the date of the tribunal judgement.
Tinubu’s government had dismissed all claims of wrongdoing and appeared confident before Wednesday’s decision. Currently, he is in India for the G20 summit, where he hopes to drum up foreign investment.
