Posted by Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been declared the legitimate winner of the 2023 presidential election by the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal after over 12 hours of verdict delivery in three different cases challenging the conduct of the poll.
The three petitions were judged to be without merit in the Tribunal’s final judgement, which was made public by Justice Haruna Simon Tsammani.
The petitions filed by Peter Obi of the Labour Party and Abubakar Atiku of the Peoples Democratic Party, both presidential candidates for the PDP, were determined to be based on hearsay and to have no probative value, according to the unanimous decision of the five-judge panel.
Atiku’s petition’s four grounds were all determined against him because he was unable to present strong, verifiable evidence to support his claims against Tinubu and the Independent National Electoral Commission, or INEC.
The final forfeiture of $460,000 by Tinubu in 1993 was not in accordance with the laws of Nigeria, according to Justice Tsammani, who read the final findings.
According to the Justices, there must be an arraignment, plea agreement, complete trial, conviction, and outright sentence before the forfeiture can be utilized as punishment in Nigeria.
They rejected Atiku’s claims that INEC had violated the Electoral Act by downloading election results, noting that only manual collation of results was permitted under the law.
In a same vein, Obi’s assertion that he received the majority of valid ballots was disproved because it lacked any solid supporting documentation.
“The two petitioners failed to establish how non-use of the BVAS machine substantially affected the election,” it was decided.
Instead of presenting solid, corroborated proof of the facts, the Justices accused Obi and Atiku of utilizing social media to harass and blackmail the Tribunal.