After months of legal fireworks at the tribunal, the Presidential Election Petition Panel on Wednesday declared Bola Tinubu as the duly elected president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The tribunal led by Haruna Tsamman said the petitions filed by Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) challenging the presidential election results were “all devoid of merit”.
Part of the charges filed against Tinubu included his failure to secure 25 percent of votes cast in the federal capital territory (FCT) and his forfeiture of $460,000 in the US.
The results of the election as declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), showed that Tinubu scored a total of 8,794,726 votes to defeat Atiku and Obi, who polled 6,984,520 and 6,101,533 votes, respectively.
“This petition accordingly lacks merit. I affirm the return of Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the duly elected President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria”, Justice Tsammani said.
The five-person panel of the Tribunal, unanimously took turns to dismiss the petitions.
Other members of the tribunal include, Justice Stephen Adah, Justice Mistura Bolaji-Yusuf, Justice Boloukuoromo Ugo, and Justice Abba Mohammed.
