PDP, Atiku’s allegations against Buhari remain unproved —Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Friday said all allegations raised by the
Peoples Democratic Party and Atiku Abubakar, challenging President
Muhammadu Buhari’s victory at the February 23 presidential
election, were unproven.

Atiku, a former vice-president who contested the election
against Buhari, claimed he won the election.

Justice Inyang Okoro said this while giving reasons why the apex
court on October 30 dismissed the appellants’ appeal that
challenged the judgment of the presidential tribunal.

News Agency of Nigeria reports that the appellants had claimed
that the tribunal erred in addressing all the issues raised in
petition.

NAN further reports that the issues brought before the tribunal
bordered on the qualification, electoral malpractice, and
transmission of election results electronically, among others.

In the circumstance, the appellant prayed the tribunal to rule
all the issues in their favour and return Atiku as winner of the
election.

However, Okoro, who provided the definitive reasons by seven-man
panel of justices, led by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice
Tanko Muhammad, also held that: “the appeal lacked any scintilla of
merit and therefore needed to be dismissed.”

On allegations on the president’s qualification, Okoro said
Buhari was eminently qualified to contest the election as
sufficient evidence was adduced to confirm both his educational and
candidature status that were accepted by INEC.

Okoro, therefore, upheld the decision of the tribunal on the
issues around the president’s qualification and possession of
relevant certificates was legendary.

The judge also said that Buhari was not liable of any
irregularities and corrupt practices before, during and after the
election as claimed by the appellants.

He also said the president was not under any obligations to
attach his credentials to his INEC nomination form as contested by
the appellants, adding that such demand was not provided for by the
Constitution.

On the allegation of the use of server by INEC in transmitting
results of the election to a central point, Okoro, said PDP and
Atiku failed woefully by not providing evidence to substantiate
such an allegation.

“They were wrong to have relied on the so called results
obtained from a website not maintained by the electoral umpire,
adding that the claim by Atiku that he won the election based on
information from such a clandestine source was questionable.

“I agree entirely with the court below that the appellants
failed to prove that INEC has the server from which they got their
figures.

“As a result, all the results, calculations and analysis based
on the results from such a source that did not belong to INEC are
of no moment,’’ the judge said.

On allegations of over voting, violence and malpractices, Okoro
held that the failure of the appellants to call credible witnesses
was fatal to their case, adding that five witnesses invited to
prove such allegations was unimaginable.

According to the judge, most of the issues raised by the
appellants were based on to prove hearsay evidence, adding that the
apex court could not grant prayers that were not proven beyond
reasonable doubt.

“We are of the conviction that the lower court did a good job
based on the evidence brought before it by the appellants. We also
unanimously dismissed the appeal as all five issues remained
unproven,’’ the judge said.

(NAN)