SaharaReporters reported that the Independent National Electoral Commission at the early hours of Wednesday, declared Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress winner of the last Saturday's presidential election.
Seven Nigerian states controlled by the Peoples Democratic Party have discontinued a suit seeking to cancel the February 25 presidential and National Assembly elections over non-adherence to provisions of the constitution, the Electoral Act 2022; and election guidelines and regulations.
SaharaReporters reported that the Independent National Electoral Commission at the early hours of Wednesday, declared Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress winner of the last Saturday's presidential election.
According to INEC official results, the 70-year-old Tinubu came out top in 12 of Nigeria's 36 States, and secured significant numbers in several states to claim the highest number of votes to defeat main challengers - Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party and Peter Obi of the Labour Party who came second and third places respectively.
While Tinubu polled a total 8,794,726 million votes, according to INEC official results, the 76-year-old former Vice President, who has now run for president six times, secured 6,984,520 votes, and Obi, who, in less than a year, galvanised young voters in a manner some have described as unprecedented, finished the race with 6,101,533.
The election was largely characterised by voter suppression, thuggery, manipulation of results which led to the electoral umpire breaching its set out guidelines for the election, which stipulated that Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), an electronic device designed to read Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) and authenticate voters would be used for accreditation and uploading of polling units results.
Despite several protests across the country over INEC violations of electoral Act, constitution and it's guidelines and regulations for the conduct of the polls, the Chairman of the Commission, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, went ahead and declare the candidate of the ruling APC the winner and president-elect.
Not satisfied with the non-adherence of the provisions of the law in declaring the results of the election, governments of Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo, Taraba and Sokoto filed a suit against the Federal Government before the Supreme Court, challenging the legality of the declaration of the flawed manual collation of results contrary to the clear provisions of the law.
In the suit which had the attorneys-general of the seven states as plaintiffs and the Attorney General of the Federation as defendant, the seven states had asked the Supreme Court to intervene in the just concluded general elections, as they claimed that the declaration of Tinubu did not follow the Electoral Act and INEC’s own laid down guidelines, particularly the uploading of results to the INEC Result Viewing Portal iREV through the BVAS.
They also expressed fear of a potential breakdown of public order and civil disobedience.
However, on Friday the six states filed a motion for discountenance since what the suit seeks to cure had been overtaken by events, as only election petition Tribunal has jurisdiction to entertain the matter.
The Notice of Discontinuance signed by their lawyer, Mr Mike Ozekhome SAN said “Take notice that the plaintiffs doth hereby wholly discontinue this suit against the defendant herein”.
The States, in the suit , marked: SC/CV/354/2023 filed in the names of their Attorneys General, wanted the apex court to among others, direct “a wholistic review of all results so far announced by the Federal Government of Nigeria through the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) which were carried out other than through the manner prescribed by the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022, the INEC Regulations and Guidelines for the Conduct of Elections, 2022; and the INEC Manual for Election Officials.”
They had prayed the court to declare “that the Federal Government of Nigeria the Independent National Electoral Commission was bound to electronically transmit or transfer Polling Unit Results in Form EC8A using BVAS by uploading Scanned Copy of the said Unit Result to the Independent National Electoral Commission Result Viewing Portal (IReV) in the course of the General Elections held on the 25th of February, 2023 throughout the Federation in compliance with the provision of Sections 25; 47(2); 60 (1), (2), (4) & (5); 62; 64(4)(a) & (b); 70; and 148 of the Electoral Act, 2022, governing the 2023 nationwide general elections, particularly paragraphs 38 of the INEC Regulations and Guidelines for the Conduct of Elections, 2022; and paragraphs 2.8.4; 2.9.0; and 2.9.1 of the INEC Manual for Election Officials, 2023, for the conduct of the Presidential Election.”