President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will today know his fate as the commander-in-chief more than seven months after the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC declared him the winner of the February 25 presidential election.
On September 4 the Presidential Election Petition Court, PEPT, announced that it was ready to give judgment on the contested election. A 5-member panel of the judges of the Court of Appeal will decide the matter today.
Recall that the INEC announced that Tinubu secured 8,794,726 votes to defeat Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, who got 6,984,520, and Peter Obi of the Labour Party, LP, who polled 6,101,533 votes.
Four political parties are challenging the results announced by INEC at the tribunal. The parties are the PDP, LP, Movement, APM, and the and th Action Alliance, AA.
Ahead of the judgment by the court, security has been beefed up by all the security agencies in the country, including the police, Army, DSS, amongst others to avert a breakdown of law and order.
Will the tribunal validate the election of Tinubu. Will it declare Atiku Abubakar of the PDP or Peter Obi of the Labour Party, the other two candidates in the historic election the winner? That is the big question on the lips of many Nigerians who have waited for months for the court to make their decision on the matter.
The major argument before the tribunal is whether the Prof. Yakub Mahmood-led INEC was right to declare Tinubu the winner without securing 25 percent of the vote cast in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, a condition legal experts say must be met fof any candidate in the election to be declared winner of a presidential election in the country.
Other matters to be determined by the tribunal are academic qualification of Tinubu, the alleged double nomination of Kassim Shetima as his vice president, and the alleged indictment of Tinubu in the US on drug-related issues, amongst others.
Obi, the LP candidate claimed in his petition before the panel that the failure by the electoral umpire to upload the results of the presidential election on its website is enough to invalidate the election. The LP candidate insist that the requirement is a major requirement of the Electoral Act which he claimed that INEC failed to adhere to.
The LP candidate is also asking the court to declare him the winner of the election or invalidate the results announced by INEC, and the conduct of fresh elections in which Tinubu of the APC will not participate.
The PEPC had two days ago issued a statement notifying the public of the judgment, which it said will be broadcast live for transparency.
“The court of appeal wishes to inform the general public that judgment in the following petitions before the Presidential Election Petition Court will be delivered on Wednesday, 6th September, 2023:
The statement said, “• CAREPC/03/2023 between Mr. Peter Gregory Obi & Anor VS. Independent National Electoral Commission & 3 Ors.
“• CA/PEPC/04/2023 between Allied Peoples Movement VS. Independent National Electoral Commission & 4 Ors.
“• CA/PEPC/05/2023 between Abubakar Atiku & Anor VS. Independent National Electoral Commission & 2 Ors.
“In a bid to promote transparency and openness, these judgments will be televised live by interested Television Stations for the public to follow.
“Access to the Court premises will be strictly on accreditation.
“Only accredited individuals, including counsel and representatives of political parties, will be granted access into the Courtroom.
“Interested members of the public are advised to watch proceedings from their television sets.”
Whatever the decision is reached today by the panel, the candidates still have the opportunity to challenge the judgment in the Supreme Court, the highest court in the country.
