The Supreme Court has thrown out Atiku’s petition challenging Buhari’s 2019 election victory.

The Supreme Court has dismissed the appeal filed by Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 elections.

Atiku has been challenging the election victory of President Muhammadu Buhari who won a second term in office on February 23, 2019.

Atiku had earlier lost his case at the Election Petitions Tribunal.

The seven-man Supreme Court panel led by Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Tanko Mohammed, dismissed Atiku’s petition for lacking in merit.  

The CJN informed the court that the panel has been reviewing the case for two weeks.

Tanko also added that reasons for the dismissal of Atiku’s petition will be provided in due course.

Losing at the tribunal

On September 11, 2019, the Justice Mohammed Garba-led presidential election petitions tribunal affirmed President Buhari’s victory at the polls and ruled that he was “eminently qualified to contest the 2019 election.”

Atiku filed 66 grounds of appeal before the Supreme Court as he challenged the judgment of the tribunal.

Earlier, CJN Mohammed led five other Justices of the Supreme Court to hear the appeals.

The other Justices were Bode Viviour, Olukayode Ariwoola, Amiru Sanusi, Ejembi Eko and Uwani Abba-Aji.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC), winner of the vote with 15,191,847 ballots.

Atiku polled second with 11,262,978 votes, according to the electoral umpire.

Atiku declared the outcome of the election a sham and travesty soon afterwards; and mounted a legal challenge to wrest the presidency from Buhari.