Presidential Election: Supreme Court Delivers Judgment

The Supreme Court of Nigeria has delivered judgment in an appeal filed at the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal by the Hope Democratic Party (HDP) against President Muhammadu Buhari‘s victory.

YaahooJournalist reports that the HDP and Ambrose Owuru, its presidential candidate, had appealed the decision of the presidential election petitions tribunal which dismissed their petition challenging the victory of Buhari at the 2019 presidential election.

The five-man panel of the Supreme Court led by Justice Mary Odili while ruling on the case on Thursday dismissed the appeal by HDP and Owuru.

Justice Odili dismissed the appeal on the grounds that more than one notice of appeal was filed in the same appeal.

The presiding judge held that Owuru and HDP failed to appeal against the ruling delivered by the tribunal on August 22 which struck out their petition based on the lack of jurisdiction.

“The two notices of appeal filed by the appellants and jointly utilised is a procedure not backed by law and cannot be used.

“Rather the appellants have come here to tackle the decision on the merits which the court below handled out of the abundance of caution,” the Supreme court judge said.