Atiku appeals tribunal judgement affirming Tinubu’s election

Abubakar Atiku, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has filed an appeal before the supreme court seeking to nullify the judgement of the election petition tribunal, which affirmed Bola Tinubu’s victory at the poll. 

The 35-grounds notice of appeal was filed on Monday through Chris Uche, lead counsel to Abubakar.

The five-man tribunal led by Haruna Tsammani had in a judgment delivered on September 6 dismissed petitions by opposition parties and their candidates challenging the election of Tinubu.

The court held that the petitions filed by Abubakar and the PDP, Peter Obi and the Labour Party (LP) and the Allied Peoples Movement (AMP) were devoid of merit.

In the notice of appeal, Atiku and his party submitted that the tribunal’s findings were done with grave errors and gross misrepresentation which resulted in a miscarriage of justice.

They submitted that the panel erred in law by failing to uphold the “mandatoriness of electronic transmission” of results by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The appellants also said the lower court erred in law in its interpretation of section 134(2)(b)
of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which addresses scoring of 25 percent of votes in the federal capital territory (FCT).

They also faulted the tribunal for striking out the statements on oaths made by 13 of their witnesses.

In summary, the appellants are praying the supreme court to set aside the entire findings and conclusions of the tribunal.