The supreme court of Nigeria has dismissed the appeal the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar filled before it challenging the ruling of the tribunal.
The appeal marked SC/738/2019, had demanded to nullify the aspect of the proceeding of the Presidential Petition Tribunal where the victory of President Buhari is being challenged.
The petitioner prayed the Supreme Court to review the record of proceedings the justice Mohammed Garba- led tribunal held on June 11, to okay if the presidential tribunal was right when it posited that the All Progressive Congress, APC filed a legitimate reply to the petition against the outcome of the February 23rd general election.
Accordingly, though the Supreme court adjourned the appeal for hearing, at the resumed proceeding on Tuesday, counsel to the appellants, Mr Eyitayo Jegede, SAN, informed the court that the constitutionally approved period for determination of such interlocutory appeal, had elapse
Subsequently, his unchallenged oral application to withdraw the appeal was accordingly struck out by a five-man panel of the Supreme Court led by Justice Datijo Mohammed.
The Supreme Court agreed it was satisfied the appeal had become statute-barred.
Meanwhile, the panel has decline proceedings to rule on a second appeal that Atiku and PDP filed to challenge refusal of the tribunal to compel the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to open the central server it deployed for the 2019 presidential election, for inspection.
Details later...
