The Supreme Court has begun sitting on the appeals filed by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP) against the election of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The apex court started with the Atiku/PDP case called, and lawyers announcing appearances.
Justice John Okoro, who prepared the lead judgment in the appeal by Atiku and the PDP, is reading it.
The court has elected to first decide the merit of the motion filed by Atiku and the PDP to supply fresh evidence (the documents from Chicago State University) in support of their appeal.
Arrangements have been concluded for the live broadcast of the Supreme Court proceedings on the appeals filed by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP) against the election of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Politicians, mostly party officials, government appointees and senior lawyers are at the Supreme Court preparatory to the court’s delivery of judgment in the dispute over the last presidential election.
The judgment is on the appeals by Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP).
Among those in court are the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike; National Security Adviser (NSA) Nuhu Ribadu; Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila and one of President Bola Tinubu’s children, Seyi.
Others are Acting Chairman of the PDP, Umar Damagum; factional Chairman Labour Party, Julius Abure; Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Abdullahi Ganduje and Minister of State Petroleum Resources (oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, among others.
Some senior lawyers in court are Chief Chris Uche, SAN, (lead lawyer to Atiku/PDP); Mike Ozekhome, SAN (a member of the Atiku/PDP legal team), Sir Steve Adehi, SAN (lawyer to INEC), among
Although it is already 9am, the court is yet to commence sitting.
There is tight security at the Supreme Court, which is set to deliver judgement on the appeals by People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP) against the election of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Though there was no armored personnel carrier (APC) within the Supreme Court complex, there is a heavy presence of armed security operatives.
There’s however a security check by a mobile security body scanner mounted at the entrance of the court building that everyone has to pass through.
Being the only security scanner, a little queue builds up as more people arrive at the court building entrance.
The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Abdullahi Ganduje arrived shortly after Mike Ezekhome (SAN) walked through the security body scanner.
The Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, and the National Security Advice (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu arrived together while the Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike just drove in.
No one without a clearance tag was allowed into the court building.
Thursday is looking like any normal working day as there is no movement yet to suggest that there’s a long-awaited judgement by the Supreme Court in an election appeal by two presidential candidates against the victory of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu today.
From the Federal Secretariat axis to the Supreme court complex, everybody was going about their businesses unhindered.
There was no heavy presence of armed or unarmed security operatives or Armoured Personnel carrier (APC). No area was cordoned off neither was any lane on the Shehu Shagari way blocked to pedestrians or motorists.
All eyes will be on the Supreme Court as it is set to deliver the judgment it reserved on the appeals seeking to nullify the election of President Bola Tinubu.
The Supreme Court slated Thursday, October 26, for judgement on the appeals filed by the presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Abubakar Atiku, and Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi.
The judgement will lay to rest the legal fireworks over the 25 February presidential election.
The Nation reports five-member PEPC led by Haruna Tsammani had on 6 September dismissed petitions filed by the presidential candidates for lacking in merit and affirmed the election of President Tinubu.
Displeased with the judgment, the duo approached the Supreme Court, asking it to overturn the judgement of the lower court in their favour.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court had at Monday’s proceedings, dismissed the petition filed by the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), after its lawyers withdrew the case.
1. Atiku’s notice of appeal had canvassed 35 grounds, contending that the PEPC erred in law. Specifically, Atiku asked the Supreme Court to set aside the whole findings and conclusions of the PEPC on the grounds that they did not represent the true picture of the grounds of his petition.
2. Obi, on his part, through his lead counsel, Levi Uzoukwu (SAN), also prayed the Supreme Court to set aside the judgement of the PEPC. Obi premised his appeal on 51 grounds, arguing that the Presidential Election Petition Court’s judgement declining to nullify Tinubu’s election occasioned a miscarriage of justice.
3. Atiku sought to breathe fresh life into his appeal by tendering President Tinubu’s academic records from the Chicago State University, while Obi stuck to the evidence he had submitted to the presidential election court.
4. Obi contended that the five-member panel of the Presidential Election Petition Court led by Haruna Tsammani “erred in law and thereby reached a wrong conclusion” when it dismissed his case. Obi’s lawyer said the court erroneously ruled that Obi’s case failed to establish the polling stations where electoral malpractices took place during the February presidential election.
5. The lawyer also said the lower court’s conclusions caused a “grave miscarriage of justice” when it held that Obi did not identify the specific number of votes he polled at polling units where he accused INEC and Tinubu of suppressing votes. Arguing further, the appellant alleged that Tinubu was not qualified to vie for the election on account of improper nomination of his vice-presidential pick.
6. Obi’s lawyer said: “The court below overlooked that the respondents failed to disprove the evidence of substantial non-compliance adduced by the petitioners.” The appellant, in the filing, told the Supreme Court that the lower court ignored evidence that proved how Tinubu was indicted and fined $4,600, in the U.S.
The Supreme Court has scheduled judgement for Thursday, October 26, in the appeals by Atiku Abubakar/the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi/Labour Party (LP) against the September 6 judgment of the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) which affirmed the victory of President Bola Tinubu in the last presidential election.
Five political parties including the PDP, LP, Action Peoples Party (APP), Allied Peoples Movement (APM), and the Action Alliance (AA) had lodged separate petitions before the tribunal, seeking to annul Tinubu’s victory, but only three made it to the Supreme Court.
A seven-member panel of the court, headed by Justice John Okoro, heard the appeals on Monday, October 23, and reserved judgment to a date to be communicated to parties.
The judges presiding over the appeal are:
1. Justice John Inyang Okoro
Justice Okoro will preside over the panel that will hear petitions against President Tinubu.
He is from Nung Ukim, Ikono Local Government Area in Akwa Ibom state.
He attended the Nigerian Law School, Lagos, and was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1985.
Justice Okoro was elevated to the Supreme Court on November 15, 2013.
He is currently the fourth most senior justice of the court.
2. Justice Uwani Musa Abba-Aji
Justice Abba Aji is the highest-ranking female judge on the Supreme Court bench and the panel’s sole female member.
She was born on November 7, 1956, in Gashua, Yobe State.
She was called to the Bar in 1981 and commenced her career as State Counsel in 1982.
She was appointed Higher Court Judge of Yobe State Judiciary in December 1991 making her the first Lady Judge at Yobe State Judiciary, a position she held until July 2004 when she was elevated to the Court of Appeal.
She was elevated to the Supreme Court on January 8, 2019.
3. Justice Ibrahim Saulawa
Justice Saulawa was born on September 29, 1956 in Katsina. Katsina State.
He was called to the Nigerian Bar on July 2, 1982.
Justice Saulawa was elevated to the Bench of the Court of Appeal on June 10. 2006.
After spending his time in the Nigerian legal scene, He was elevated to the Bench of the Supreme Court on November 10, 2020.
4. Justice Mohammed Lawal Garba
Justice Mohammed Lawal Garba was born on November 16, 1958.
He is from Gusau Local Government Area of Zamfara State.
He was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1981.
He was then appointed a Judge of the High Court of Justice, Sokoto State from 1993-1996.
He served as Chief Judge, High Court of Justice, Zamfara State from 1996-2004.
Remarkably, he served as a member of the Presidential Election Panel in 2011 and also as Chairman of the Presidential Election Panel that dismissed the petition that Atiku filed to challenge the election of former President Muhammadu Buhari, in 2019.
He was elevated to the Supreme Court on November 6, 2020.
5. Justice Tijjani Abubakar
Justice Tijjani Abubakar was born on April 15, 1960.
He hails from the Base Local Government Area of Yobe State.
After graduating from the Nigerian Law School, Justice Abubakar was called to the Bar in 1983.
He worked in several legal parastatals in Yobe state.
He was serving at the Lagos Division of the appellate court when he was elevated to the Supreme Court bench in 2020.
In 1980, he studied Law at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria where he bagged his law degree.
He was called to the bar in 1983 and immediately started working at the Ministry of Justice.
In 2007, he was promoted to the Court of Appeal and served in Jos, Lagos, Yola, Ibadan, and Port Harcourt.
Justice Jauro was elevated to the Supreme Court bench in November 2020.
7. Justice Emmanuel Agim
Justice Emmanuel Agim was born on April 26, 1960, in Obudu, Cross Rivers State.
He served as chief justice of Gambia from 2009 to 2013.
He was also a former chief justice of Swaziland.
He is also a former justice at the Nigerian Courts of Appeal and currently a Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
He obtained his first degree at the University of Calabar LLB (Hons), then BL from Nigerian Law School Lagos, and subsequently LLM from the University of Wolverhampton, United Kingdom
The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has said that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is again under the delusion that its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, would prevail in his appeal at the Supreme Court.
The party was described as vain, the confidence of victory being expressed by the opposition from its appeal at the apex court, stating that Atiku and his party were heading for another round of “spectacular defeat.”
Supreme Court on Monday, October 23, reserved judgment in the appeal by Abubakar and his party against the September 6 judgment of the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) which affirmed the victory of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the last presidential election.
A seven-member panel of the court, led by Justice John Okoro made the announcement after lawyers to parties adopted their briefs of argument and made final submissions.
Dismissing PDP’s optimism of victory at the apex court, APC national publicity secretary, Felix Morka, in a statement in Abuja on Monday trashed an earlier statement by the PDP, insisting that the opposition party is “deep in hallucination.”
Morka, a lawyer argued that “Court cases are won on the strength of cogent, credible, compelling or substantial evidence, not on hollow, implausible, capricious tales and fabrications of the kind that Atiku Abubakar dumped on the court in the guise of a “body of evidence”, evidencing nothing.
The PDP must also be thoroughly deluded to imagine that it can get through the court what it deservedly failed to get through the polls.
The governing party noted that the claim by the PDP that the election was “manipulated” against its candidate was “both ridiculous and insulting to millions of Nigerians who voted massively for the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its Presidential Candidate, now President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
He said: “The PDP and its candidate’s desperate resort to blackmail, disinformation, misinformation, and malicious falsehoods against the President and our great Party is intended to prospectively downplay what promises to be a spectacular and ignominious defeat that awaits the PDP and its nemesis of a presidential candidate.”
The Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal filed by Senator Smart Adeyemi against the judgements of the two lower courts on the All Progressives Congress (APC) primary election, which held in Kogi State on April 15, 2023.
The Supreme Court, in a unanimous judgement, held that the appeal lacked merit, having failed to challenge the concurrent findings of both the High and Appeal Courts, or demonstrate that same were perverse.
The Apex Court also held that the two issues raised in the Appellant’s brief were unreasonable, vexatious, not triable and against the provisions of Section 132 and 133(1) of the Evidence Act 2011.
Adeyemi, who represented Kogi West Senatorial District in the 9th Assembly, filed a suit at the Federal High Court seeking to nullify the primary election of the APC, which produced Usman Ododo as the party’s flag bearer for the governorship election slated for November 11.
The case was dismissed by the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal for lacking in merit.
The apex court, while delivering judgment on Monday, first struck out the Appellant’s first notice of Appeal, the Appellant having relied on the 2nd Notice of Appeal filed and held that the power of the Apex Court in respect of appeals against concurrent findings of the two lower Courts could only be exercised when the findings were alleged to be perverse.
The Court also described as contemptuous, the practice of parties appearing on TV stations to discuss pending appeals, saying, “You go saying on television that if the court is a court of justice, the appeal should go in your favour.”
“The court frowns at this practice. Once you’ve engaged a lawyer, go and rest. I am giving this elaborate talk so that you don’t go out and say things that are not reasonable. The Court is manned by reasonable persons,” Justice E. A Agim, who delivered the Supreme Court’s Judgement, said.
The Apex Court said: “There is nothing on the Notice of Appeal of the Appellant showing a challenge as to the perverseness of the findings of the two lower courts.
“The Appellant never alleged that there was no evidence to support the findings of the two lower Courts. This Court has no power to revisit those issues of facts raised in the Notice of Appeal unless there is an allegation that the findings were perverse.”
“On the whole, this appeal fails. The Appellant shall pay the cost of N1 million each to the 1st and 3rd Respondents (the governorship candidate and the APC),” the Supreme Court ruled.
Dapo Otitoju represented the Appellant; Abdulwahab Muhammed, SAN, represented the APC, Umar Abdulhamid represented the 2nd Respondent, and M. Y Abdullahi, SAN, the 3rd Respondent.
The Court of Appeal, on August 18, 2023, held that the appeal argued by Adekunle Oladapo Otitoju on behalf of Senator Adeyemi was completely bereft of merit.
In a unanimous judgment of a three-man panel of Justices of the Court, Adeyemi was said to have failed to establish all grievous criminal allegations made against the conduct of the primary election by APC and its leaders.
Justice Mohammed Lawal Shuaib who delivered the lead judgment resolved all the three issues in dispute against Adeyemi.
Justice Shuaib said that the allegations of manipulations and falsifications of the primary election results made by Adeyemi, being criminal in nature, ought to have been proved beyond reasonable doubt as required by law.
He also dismissed another allegation by the Appellant that he was denied fair hearing by the Appeal Committee of the APC based on his petition against the alleged unlawful conduct of the primary election.
Justice Shuaib said that the issue of denial of fair hearing was not raised in his originating summons at the Federal High Court, hence, could not be raised as a fresh issue at the Court of Appeal.
In the absence of cogent and verifiable evidence on the part of Adeyemi, the Court of Appeal held that his allegations remained mere assertions that could not enjoy any probative value.
The Court of Appeal upheld the judgment of Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court in Abuja delivered on July 12, which had held that Adeyemi did not prove his allegations that Ododo was not lawfully nominated by the APC.
Senator Adeyemi had, therefore, sought an order of the Supreme Court, setting aside the judgments of the lower courts, allowing his appeal and granting all the reliefs sought in his originating summons.
The Supreme Court has dismissed the appeal filed by the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) challenging the nomination of Kashim Shettima as the Vice Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the last presidential election.
A seven-member panel, headed by Justice John Okoro pronounced the dismissal of the appeal after the appellant’s lawyer, Chukwuma Majukwu Umeh applied to withdraw it.
Members of the panel had, at the mention of the appeal, noted that it was frivolous because the Supreme Court had, in an earlier case of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) v. INEC and others, resolved this issue that Shettima was properly nominated.
Justice Okoro pointedly asked Umeh what he thought his client would benefit from the outcome of the case if not only to further overburden the court.
Umeh had made efforts to distinguish his client’s case from that if the PDP v. INEC and others, but later had a change of mind when the Justice Okoro insisted that the appeal lacked any utilitarian value.
