Peter Obi’s presidential election challenge in Nigeria rejected by election tribunal

The Appeal Court in Nigeria has said no to a challenge against Bola Tinubu‘s small win in the presidential election held in February.

After thinking for six hours, they said Peter Obi’s Labour Party’s request was not valid and rejected all of his arguments, including the accusation of deceit.

We will know soon what they decide about the complaint made by Atiku Abubakar from the Peoples Democratic Party.

Although there were issues with the election, Mr. Tinubu was officially sworn in as an officeholder on May 29th.

The election was the most strongly fought since the military rule ended in 1999, with three very capable candidates competing for the first time. Mr Tinubu received the highest amount of votes with 37%, while Mr Abubakar got 29% and Mr Obi got 25%.

Before Wednesday’s decision, there was a lot of tension in the country. The capital, Abuja, saw more security measures put in place.

Even though authorities told people not to protest, different political groups came together outside the courthouse and started singing and dancing.

The decision made on the same day the President served 100 days in office will be a big win for President Tinubu. He will now closely watch the Supreme Court, as his opponents may challenge this ruling.

But the judges at the Appeal Court all agreed and their decision will make him feel more assured. This was already shown because he was not in the country when Wednesday’s decision was made. He was in India for the G20 summit.

Lead justice Haruna Tsammani, who made the final decision, said “the people who brought the case couldn’t prove that there was corruption and too many votes. ”

Justice Tsammani also mentioned that:

The people who made the petition did not say exactly which polling stations they believe had cheating.
The people who started the petition did not give enough evidence to support their claim that votes were being unfairly stopped from being counted in the areas where they have the most support.
The electoral commission didn’t have to send results electronically.
Not uploading pictures of the polling unit results right away did not make the election not count.