Tribunal upholds Nigerian president’s February 25 election victory

Nigeria’s presidential election tribunal has upheld president Bola Tinubu’s win in the February 25 polls. The tribunal also disqualified the claim of the opposition People’s Democratic Party that the incumbent President is not qualified to run for the top executive position…

A post-election tribunal in Nigeria has rejected a request by the country’s main opposition parties to nullify the victory of president Bola Ahmed Tinubu in February’s presidential election.

The Presidential Election Petition Court in a nearly nine-hour judgement Wednesday in the capital Abuja ruled that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party (LP) and Allied Peoples Movement (APM) failed to prove their allegation of Tinubu’s involvement in a narcotic deal in the US and election malpractices in about half of the country’s 36 states beyond “reasonable doubt.”

Justice Haruna Tsammani, the head of a five-member panel, declared in his lead judgement that “The petitioner is unable to prove its case and claim of conviction of the second respondent in the US for involvement in a narcotic case and forfeiture of $460,000 in the same case.”

Tsammani said the opposition PDP allegations of vote fraud were “so lame” and dismissed Atiku Abubakar’s argument that Tinubu was not qualified to run for president.

While reacting to the judgement from India where he is preparing to take part in the G20 summit, President Tinubu welcomed the tribunal ruling and called on his rivals and their supporters to support his government.

Meanwhile the Labour party has rejected the outcome of the petition while saying that it would soon announce its next line of action.

Tinubu secured 8.8 million votes in the election while the opposition candidate, Atiku Abubakar of the PDP, garnered 6.9 million votes and Peter Obi of the LP got 6.1 million votes.