The Supreme Court of Nigeria has affirmed the ruling of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, which declared Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as the winner of the presidential election held on February 25th. The court, presided over by Justice John Okoro, dismissed the petitions filed by the candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, stating that they lacked merit. The Supreme Court ruled that the PDP’s candidate failed to prove that he had won the election. Justice Okoro added that there was no alternative figure of votes to counter that validly declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and that the Supreme Court could not manufacture votes in support of Atiku and PDP. Therefore, the appeal was dismissed, and the judgment of the court below, delivered on September 6th, 2023, affirming the election of the second respondent as the duly elected President of Nigeria, was affirmed.
Moreover, Justice Okoro stated that the testimonies of Atiku and Obi’s state collation officers were hearsay and couldn’t be used as evidence to prove that there was electoral fraud. According to him, the testifiers couldn’t be in all parts of their states at the same time to prove their case.