Nigerians from all walks of life are waiting eagerly to witness the televised live proceedings from the Tribunal venue at the Court of Appeal in Abuja, the nation’s capital.

Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP), and the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) are challenging President Bola Tinubu’s declaration as the winner of the 2023 presidential election.

Thank you for following our live updates of the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal (PEPT)’s judgement. 

09:09pm. The Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal Affirms Tinubu’s Win

Justice Tsammani said, “This petition accordingly lacks merit. I affirm the return of Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the duly elected President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The parties are to bear their cost”.

08:51 pm: Issue four is on whether INEC was right to return the second respondent, Tinubu as duly elected by the majority of lawful votes cast.

The tribunal held that the petitioner has not successfully proved the allegations on this ground and indeed all the grounds in their petition.

07:11 pm: Justice Adah has handed over the reading of the judgement to the head of the panel –  Justice Tsammani – who is now dealing with the substantive petition.

07:03 pm: Court Strikes Out Atiku’s Dual Citizen Petition Against Tinubu

On the issue of dumping of documents on the court, he held that this would only go to the weight to be attached to such evidence.

On the issue of Tinubu’s conviction and the issue of his dual citizenship, the Tribunal again held like it earlier did that these issues were incompetent and liable to be struck out and same were indeed struck out.

After this, Justice Adah hands over to Justice Tsammani who then proceeds to deal with the main petition. The court spells out four grounds for determination.

On the inability of the election officers to transmit, of the 27 witnesses called by the petitioner, 10 were polling unit agents who testified as to how the elections were conducted in their different polling units.

All 10 of the witnesses testified that the voting went well and was peaceful in their different polling units but they all said they could not upload results electronically to the INEC IREV, so they entered the results manually and took the same to the ward & or state collation centre.

The witnesses were emphatic that voting went well, party agents signed the results but the only difficulty was in uploading the results electronically.

6:37 pm: Justice Adah rejected Atiku’s 15 witnesses, saying their statements on oath were not filed along with the petition.

He also rejected 37 exhibits they tendered.

5:27 pm Justice Ugo begins to highlight faults in Atiku’s petition, saying it is filed with generic allegations.

According to him, the petition did not list polling units where election malpractices happened.

05:04 pm  The court starts judgement on Atiku’s petition

One of the five-man panel Justice Moses Ugo is reading the judgement in Atiku’s case against President Bola Tinubu.

05:01 pm: ‘You Can’t Interrupt Court Judgment’, Tribunal Shuts Down APC’s Lawyer

05:52 pm: Tribunal Strikes Out LP’s Petition Against Tinubu’s Win

The Tribunal struck out the Labour Party’s petitions against Tinubu’s win in the presidential election for lack of merit.

04:37 pm: The petitioners have failed to establish their allegations of overvoting and voter suppression, the court ruled.

4:03 pm: The court is highlighting issues of corruption which Obi claimed were recorded in the elections. They include vote suppression, inflation of results, and over-voting.

But Just Tsammani said some paragraphs relating to these claims have been struck out earlier due to their vague and generic nature.

3:41 pm: The PEPT ruled that Obi failed to establish that INEC intentionally refused to quickly upload polling unit results to IReV so as to alter the results in Tinubu’s favour.

“The petitioner made the allegation of non-compliance a substantial part of their case. By the provisions of Section 135(2) of the Electoral Act, they are required to show how such noncompliance substantially affected them. If they fail to show the same, the petition fails,” the court ruled.

3:12 pm: According to the PEPT, INEC regulations and the Electoral Act give room for manual collation of results. It said electronic transmission is optional at best.

3:08 pm: The court added that the only device that must be used by INEC for elections is the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS)

It noted that there’s no regulation showing BVAS must be used to electronically transmit results from polling units.

02: 41 pm: INEC At Liberty To Define Mode Of Transmitting Election Results – Court

On the issue of substantial non-compliance with the provisions of the law, especially with regard to non-transmission of result sheets to INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV), the court holds that there is no law that says INEC must transfer or transmit the results of the election from the polling units electronically.

The law simply empowers INEC to decide the means of collation of results of elections, the court argued.

02: 26 pm: Obi, LP Failed To Prove Tinubu Was Convicted In US, Tribunal Rules

The Presidential Election Petitions Court on Wednesday ruled that the Labour Party (LP) and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, failed to prove that President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was convicted for money laundering in the United States.

The five-man panel led by Justice Haruna Tsammani ruled that no record of criminal arrest or conviction was established against Tinubu by the petitioners – Obi and the LP.

02:12 pm: Tribunal dismisses LP/Obi’s Petition on 25 per cent needed to win the presidential election.

According to the court, FCT residents have no special privileges as the petitioners claimed.

1:28 pm: The court has rejected the reports of forensic analyses tendered by LP’s three witnesses. According to the court, they are either made during the pendency of the case or by an interested party.

This is as it rejected the European Union report on the polls, arguing that it was not tendered by an official of the body.

12:31 pm: Tribunal Declares APC’s Petition On Obi’s Membership Incompetent

The Court also declared APC’s petition challenging Obi’s membership of the LP as incompetent. Justice Abba says membership in a political party is an internal affair.

The Tribunal also touched on the issue of non-joinder of Atiku Abubakar who came second and wondered how Obi & LP’s petition could be effectively determined without joining the candidate who placed second in the polls

12: 07 p.m. LP’s Widespread Irregularities Claim Generic – Court 

While highlighting a claim by the respondents that Obi’s petition only alleged that there were widespread irregularities without giving the particulars and the polling units.

Justice Abba Mohammed holds that In a presidential election held in 176,866 polling units in 774 Local Government Areas, it would be improper not to specify where there were irregularities.

According to him, the petitioners only made generic allegations.

“Pleading must set out material facts and particulars. In the instant petition, there was no effort to prove specific allegations, particulars of complaints,” said the Tribunal.

The law is clear that where someone alleges irregularities in a particular polling unit, such person must prove the particular irregularities in that polling unit before that petition can succeed, the Tribunal added.

The court said the petitioners did not prove the particular polling unit where the election did not take place nor did they specify particulars of polling units where there are alleged complainants of irregularities.

“It was only in one instance that figures were given of alleged suppressed votes and we all know that elections are about figures,” it said.

“LP alleged that INEC reduced their scores and added it to APC votes but failed to supply particulars of what they actually scored before the said reductions, neither did they supply the polling units where it happened….”

11:50 am: A member of the panel of justices, Abba Mohammed, is reading the ruling on the preliminary objections filed by the respondents against Peter Obi’s petition.

11:47 am: The Court has reconvened to take the Judgement of the Labour Party. The judgement is read by Justice Abba Mohammed. He is reading the preambles reliefs and prayers sought.

11:26 am: The Presidential Election Petitions Court has gone on a 15-minute break.

11:05 am: Court Strikes Out APM’s Suit Against Shettima, Tinubu

The Allied Peoples Movement (APM) is arguing that Vice President Kashim Shettima was not qualified as Tinubu’s running mate as his nomination breached Section 35 of the Electoral Act 2022 and other constitutional provisions.

But for the Preliminary Objection, the court held that the petitioner (APM), ought to have filed the case (of double nomination) before the Federal High Court within 14 days from the day the cause of action arose.

The court agreed with the respondent, that the issue is statue barred.

Justice Tsammani who is reading the lead judgement, further added that section 285(14c), does not allow members of a political party to challenge the nomination of candidates of another political party.

He concluded that the petitioner lacks the locus standi to institute the petition. He therefore struck out the suit for lack of merit

09:28 am: The court has already started sitting ahead of the verdict.

09:21 am: Judges have started arriving at the court. 

09:03 am: Vice President Kashim Shettima and other governors have also arrived at the premises.

APC governors here include those of Kogi, Nassarawa, Imo, Ekiti, Yobe Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi state is also present among other PDP chieftains.

Others include the Chief of staff to the President, National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribudu, and Minister of Aviation, Festus Keyamo.

The Labour Party Chairman, Julius Abure, and Aisha Yesufu are also present.

08:47 am: Chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), All Progressives Congress (APC), and the Labour Party (LP), are arriving at the PEPT venue.

07:27 am: Security has been beefed up ahead of the PEPT verdict. Security operatives have been strategically positioned around the venue to forestall any breakdown of law.

Credit to Channelstv.com