SEVEN men panel led by the Chief Justice of the Nation (CJN), Tanko Mohammed has dismissed the appeal of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and its Presidential Candidate in the 2019 Elections, Atiku Abubakar at the Supreme Court.
Atiku filed an appeal on 66 grounds to the Supreme Court against the judgment of Mohammed Garba-led Presidential Electoral Petition Panel which upheld All Progressive Congress candidate, Muhammadu Buhari as winner of the February 23 Presidential Election.
Tanko Mohammed with Bode Rhodes-Vivour, Olukayode Ariwoola, John Okoro, Aminu Sanusi, Ejembi Eko and Uwani Abba-ji who are members of the Supreme Court panel dismissed the appeal on lack of merit.
Mohammed said the reasons for the decision of the panel would be made known on a later date.
He said the panel had read all the documents and exhibits filed in the case for two weeks and found the appeal to be lacking in merit.
The five-member panel of the Presidential Election Petition Court on September 11 held that Atiku and PDP failed to prove, beyond reasonable doubt, allegations of corruption and non-compliance with the Electoral Act against Buhari and the APC.
Atiku and PDP alleged that security agencies and agents of the APC committed acts of violence, vote-buying, manipulation of ballot papers, stuffing of ballot boxes, massive thumb-print of ballot papers, deflation and inflation of votes, among others in states such as Borno, Yobe, Niger, Katsina, Bauchi, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Gombe and Kebbi.
Lukman Abolade is an Investigative reporter with The ICIR. Reach out to him via labolade@icirnigeria.org, on twitter @AboladeLAA and FB @Correction94