Atiku, PDP Suffers Another Defeat As Supreme Court Dismisses Petition On IReV

The Supreme Court has dismissed a petition by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and its 2023 presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, which is challenging the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for failing to transmit results through the INEC Result Reviewing Portal (IReV).

The apex court, while giving its final judgement on Thursday on petitions challenging the election of Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), said PDP and Atiku’s petition on IReV cannot be the basis for nullifying the February 25th presidential election. The Supreme Court says the failure did not affect the results of the presidential election. The Presiding Judge, Justice John Okoro, insisted that the decision of the Appeal Court was unassailable, noting that Atiku’s petition seeking to nullify Tinubu’s election on non-compliance with the electronic transmission of results: a. When IREV fails, it does not stop the collation of results. b. The non-function of IREV does not reduce voters’ confidence. Naija News reports that the Supreme Court had earlier refused and dismissed an application by Atiku Abubakar and the PDP to adduce fresh evidence on the Chicago State University (CSU) diploma presented to INEC by Tinubu. The deposition by the Registrar of the CSU, Caleb Westberg, has been rejected and ruled inadmissible on the ground that the Supreme Court lacks jurisdiction to countenance the same because the 180-day timeline for determination of the election petition had elapsed. The Supreme Court noted that since the time for trial at the Court of Appeal had elapsed, it cannot accept fresh evidence on appeal. The Court also ruled that in the petition filed by Atiku, facts of forgery were not pleaded, and no application for amendment of the petition or extension of time was filed. Stating that even if such an application for amendment or extension of time was brought, it would have been refused. The Supreme Court also ruled that Atiku raised no issue for determination predicated on certificate forgery in his Brief of Argument. It equally held that the conditions for the introduction of fresh evidence on appeal have not been met.