Presidential Election: Supreme Court Reserves Judgment on Atiku’s Appeal, Dismiss APM Appeal

 The Supreme Court of Nigeria, the nation’s highest court has reserved judgment in the appeal made by Atiku Abubakar and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) against the September 6 judgment of the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) that upheld the victory of President Bola Tinubu in the last presidential election.

The announcement was made by a seven-member panel of the court, led by Justice John Okoro after the lawyers to the parties adopted their briefs of argument and made final submissions.

The court also heard arguments from lawyers to the parties on the motion filed by the appellants to supply fresh evidence.

The court has now reconvened for the hearing of the appeal by the Allied Peoples Movement (APM).

After the appellant’s lawyer, Chukwuma Majukwu Umeh applied to withdraw the appeal, the seven-member panel, headed by Justice John Okoro, pronounced the dismissal of the appeal, noting that it was frivolous as the Supreme Court had already resolved the issue that Shettima was properly nominated in an earlier case of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) v. INEC and others.

Justice Okoro asked Umeh what his client would benefit from the outcome of the case if not only to further overburden the court.

Umeh tried to differentiate his client’s case from that of PDP v. INEC and others but later withdrew the appeal after Justice Okoro insisted that it lacked any utilitarian value.