APRNEWS - Finally, the eight months legal battle for the presidency of Nigeria has come to an end, with President Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, emerging victorious.

The Supreme Court, yesterday, agreed with the September 6 verdict of the Presidential Election Petition Court, PEPC, on all counts.

The seven-man panel of the apex court led by Justice Inyang Okoro, in unanimous judgment, resolved the seven issues for determination in the appeals filed by the Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar; and his Labour Party, LP, counterpart, Mr. Peter Obi, in favour of Tinubu .

The legal tango started in March when Atiku, Obi, the Allied Peoples Movement, APM, and two others approached the PEPC to challenge the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC’s declaration of Tinubu as the winner of the February 25 presidential poll.

The INEC had on March 1 announced that Tinubu of the APC won the presidential contest ahead of 17 other candidates. It declared that Tinubu scored 8,794,726 votes to defeat Atiku Abubakar, who got 6,984,520 votes, and Mr. Peter Obi, who came third with 6,101,533 votes.
An elated President Tinubu hailed the apex court’s verdict, saying the court has done justice to all issues put up for consideration and urged all Nigerians to join hands with him to build the country.

However, the PDP and LP criticised the ruling. While the PDP said the apex court has disappointed Nigerians, the LP said that Nigeria’s Legislature and Judiciary have been hijacked by the Executive, warning that democracy is under threat and dictatorship looms.

National Chairman of the APC, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje, applauded the Supreme Court decision and urged Atiku and Obi to bury their hatchets and join hands with President Tinubu to move the nation forward.

The judgment also elicited comments from former President Muhammadu Buhari, Governors Hope Uzodimma (Imo), Dapo Abiodun (Ogun) and Biodun Oyebanji (Ekiti), Deputy Senate President Barau Jibrin, House of Representatives Speaker Tajudeen Abbas, FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, and Aviation Minister, Festus Keyamo among others.

S-Court upholds Tinubu’s victory

The apex court, in its lead judgment, prepared and read by Justice Inyang Okoro, held that there was no merit in Atiku/PDP and Obi/LP’s petitions to nullify the outcome of the election.

The court refused to admit Atiku’s fresh evidence from the Chicago State University, CSU, which claimed that Tinubu submitted a forged certificate to the INEC.