The Supreme Court on Friday read their verdict on the appeal filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and it Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar challenging the verdict of the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal which affirmed President Muhammadu Buhari’s victory at the February 23 presidential election.
The Supreme court affirmed the decision of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal which held that President Muhammadu Buhari was eminently educationally qualified to contest the 2019 presidential election.
Recall that the seven-man panel of the Supreme Court, headed by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Tanko Mohammed in a unanimous judgement on October 30 dismissed the the appeal instituted by Atiku and PDP and announced that a new date would be given to read out the reasons for the verdict.
The final court in the land dismissed the appeal in less than one hour it was heard by its 7-member panel of Justices.
Reading out the full judgement today, Friday where it explained its rejection of Atiku’s appeal, the Supreme Court said Nigerian Constitution only required a candidate contesting the presidential election to be educated up to secondary education even when the candidate does not possess the certificate.
The full judgement which was prepared by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Tanko Muhammad, but read by Justice John Okoro stated that by virtue of the provisions of the Constitution, a candidate who possesses a primary school certificate and has worked in the public or private service for a period not less than 10 years, and can read, write and communicate in the English language to the satisfaction of INEC is qualified to contest.
The Apex court also stated that President Buhari did not submit false information about his educational qualification to INEC.
The Supreme Court also said Atiku Abubakar and the PDP failed to prove the alleged irregularities including overvoting during the 2019 presidential election.
Meanwhile, the lawyers of the PDP and Atiku refused to come for the reading of the verdict. When the case was called, all the lawyers of the petitioners were not present in the court.
The counsel to the APC, Alex Izinyon told the court that the lawyers of the PDP and Atiku were all absent. The court decided to go ahead in their absence.
