2023-09-07 08:15:17
AA / Abuja / Olanrewaju Kola
Nigerian justice has rejected the appeal of the main opposition parties to annul the victory of Bola Ahmed Tinubu during the presidential election of February.
After nearly nine hours of deliberations, the Abuja Court of Appeal ruled that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Labor Party (LP) and Allied Peoples Movement (APM) had failed to prove, beyond “reasonable doubt”, their allegations of Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s involvement in narcotics trafficking in the United States and election irregularities in nearly half of the country’s 36 states.
“The petitioner is unable to prove his arguments and his allegation of conviction of the second defendant in the United States for his involvement in a narcotics case and the forfeiture of $460,000 in the same case,” the judge said. Haruna Tsammani, chairman of a five-member panel, in her verdict.
In his motion, Labor Party presidential candidate Peter Obi called on the Court to disqualify Tinubu, the candidate of the All Progressive Party (APC), because of his alleged involvement in a drug trafficking case in the United States. United.
The PDP and the APM also asked the Court to annul the declaration, on February 25, of the victory of Tinubu in the presidential election, for having nominated a candidate for the vice-presidency who was running for a seat of senator in the country’s national legislature, in violation of the law.
The court, however, ruled that Tinubu did not break the law, with documents provided by his lawyers showing that the vice-presidential nominee had withdrawn from the race for the post of senator a few months before the election.
“Nothing in the Constitution prohibits a candidate from appointing a running mate if the initial running mate withdraws. It is not necessary to organize primaries to choose a running mate. The request of the APM is therefore unfounded”, the court said.
Tinubu garnered 8.8 million votes in the presidential election, while opposition candidate Atiku Abubakar of the PDP garnered 6.9 million and Peter Obi of the LP 6.1 million.
*Translated from English by Mourad Belhaj
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