Nigeria’s Supreme Court considers appeal to overturn Tinubu’s February election victory

Nigeria’s Supreme Court considers appeal to overturn Tinubu’s February election victory

Nigeria’s Supreme Court commenced the appeal process on Monday, as an opposition candidate seeks to overturn a court’s decision that upheld President Bola Tinubu’s victory in the February elections.

After an extended period of deliberation, a court in September dismissed the applications by Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party and Peter Obi of the Labour Party, which sought to annul Tinubu’s victory based on allegations of fraud and irregularities.

Abubakar, who came in second, filed an appeal, contending that the judiciary had made a “serious error” in its judgment.

The seven judges of the Supreme Court are anticipated to render their verdict in the weeks ahead regarding this latest challenge. The Supreme Court holds the ultimate authority in presidential election petitions.

In the February polls, nearly 25 million Nigerians cast their votes in an election that was generally peaceful but marred by counting delays and electronic result transfer failures.

The international community widely accepted the final results, which declared Tinubu as the winner with 37 percent of the vote.

In Nigeria, no legal challenge to a presidential election’s outcome has succeeded since the nation’s return to democracy in 1999.