The Supreme Court has upheld the ruling by the Appeal Court that a candidate does not need to get at least 25% FCT (Federal Capital Territory) votes to be declared as the country’s president.
While Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) sought Tinubu’s victory in February 2023 to be overturned since he did not receive 25% of FCT votes, the Appeal Court dismissed their appeal.
Obi and Atiku’s challenge against Tinubu’s victory was heard by a panel of justices chaired by Justice Inyang Okoro.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court also held that the failure of the Independent National Electoral Commission to electronically transmit the election results via the IReV portal does not affect the collation.
Justice John Okoro, noted that the Electoral Act empowers INEC to determine the mode of transmission of election results.
The justice said the appellants failed to prove noncompliance with the electoral law but relied solely on INEC’s inability to electronically transmit the election results to the INEC Results Viewing (IReV) portal.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court declared that the unavailability of election results on the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) cannot serve as a basis for the annulment of the presidential election held in February 2023.
Justice Inyang Okoro, who led the panel of five Supreme Court justices, delivered the judgment in the appeals brought forth by Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). These appeals contested the ruling of the Presidential Elections Petitions Court (PEPC), which affirmed Bola Tinubu’s victory in February.
“I agree with the lower court that the failure of INEC to electronically transmit the results does not affect the collation of results,” Justice Okoro said.