The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party
in Nigeria’s general election Atiku Abubakar has reacted to the dismissal of
his appeals by the country’s highest court on Wednesday for lacking “merits”.
72-year-old Atiku, a former ally of the Nigerian President
Muhammadu Buhari, 76, described the judgment as a part of the “challenges”
Nigeria must survive.
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“While I believe that only God is infallible everywhere, and
only Nigerians are infallible in our democracy, I must accept that the judicial
route I chose to take, as a democrat, has come to a conclusion,” Atiku Abubakar
wrote on Twitter, hours after the Supreme Court sealed his fate.
The ruling brings an end to an eight-month bitter legal
battle since the delayed presidential poll in February.
Abubakar challenged the victory of President Buhari in the
February 2019 poll at the Presidential Election Tribunal and at the Supreme
Court, after he branded the result of the poll a “sham”.
Buhari took 56 percent of the vote against 41 percent for
Abubakar, the electoral commission said in February, but with a turnout of just
35.6 percent compared with 44 percent in 2015.
At the tribunal, Abubakar claimed that the election was
marred by irregularities, that he received more votes than Buhari, and the
president did not have a secondary school certificate, a basic requirement to
contest the election.
But the tribunal rejected Abubakar’s bid to overturn the
result of the poll.
“This petition is hereby dismissed in its entirety,” Justice
Mohammed Lawal Garba said announcing the ruling. All five judges who presided
over the tribunal rejected Abubakar’s claims.
The PDP said in a tweet it “completely rejects the
judgment”, which it described as a “direct assault on the integrity of our
nation’s justice system”.
Subsequently, the party and it’s presidential candidate
proceeded to file an appeal against the tribunal ruling at the country’s
Supreme Court.
At the apex court sitting on Wednesday, the court dismissed
Abubakar’s appeal for lacking merits.
“We have examined all the briefs and the exhibits for over
two weeks and we agree that there is no merit in this appeal,” Chief Justice
Tanko Muhammad said on Wednesday following the Supreme Court’s judgement.
“The appeal is dismissed,” he concluded, in an unanimous
decision with six other justices.
But Abubakar, a former Nigerian vice president, insisted he
won the election and that the Wednesday judgment was compromised, saying that
the country’s judiciary is not free.
“In a democracy, you need a strong judiciary, a free press
and an impartial electoral umpire. Nigeria has none of those three elements as
at today,” he said
Every election result has been contested unsuccessfully
since Nigeria returned to democracy in 1999, with the exception of the 2015
poll in which Goodluck Jonathan conceded defeat to Buhari.
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