BREAKING: Atiku, Obi Lose out as Tribunal Affirms Tinubu as President

The Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, PEPT has affirmed the Presidency of Bola Ahmed Tinubu after striking out the cases of Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Peter Obi of the Labour Party, LP, and the Allied Peoples Movement, APM.

The judgment was read out and taken one after the other with the APM case being handled before others were resolved.

President Bola Tinubu was absent from Proceedings as he’s currently in New Delhi, India, for the G-20 Summit.

Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi of the labour were also absent but sent representatives to stand in for them.

For the first time, the PEPT allowed judgement delivery to be televised live with Nigerians following the process in real time.

The judge struck out the matter seeking to disqualify Shettima, stating that it was a pre election matter and only party members could challenge it at the federal high courts.

The judge said:

“In Alhassan and others versus Ishaku and others, it was held that an election tribunal has no jurisdiction on the primary of a political party,”

He said the matters of qualification and disqualification are guided by the provisions of sections 131 and 137(1)(a)(j) of the Nigerian Constitution.

He held that issue complained of was an internal affair of a political party.

APM had contended that Tinubu and Shettima were not validly nominated to contest the February 25.

They argue that by the combined reading of sections 131(c) and 142(2) of the Nigerian Constitution, 1999 and Section 133 of the Electoral Act made them to invalid.
He also added that the timeframe of 180 days to determine the issue had elapsed.

It is speculated that Atiku and Obi will be taking the matter all the way to the Supreme Court to put a final resolution to the matter.