Obi Loses Appeal, Supreme Court Confirms Tinubu as President

The Supreme Court of Nigeria has dismissed the appeal filed by Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP), challenging the election of President Bola Tinubu in the February 25, 2023, presidential election. The apex court affirmed the judgement of the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC), which had earlier upheld Tinubu’s victory.

In a unanimous judgement delivered by Justice John Okoro on Thursday, October 26, 2023, the seven-member panel of the court held that Obi’s appeal lacked merit and was frivolous. The court said that most of the issues raised by Obi had been resolved in the previous appeal by Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which was also dismissed by the court on the same day.

The court further said that the only issue in Obi’s appeal that was not covered in Atiku’s appeal was the question of the nomination of Vice President Kashim Shettima, who was alleged to have been nominated by both the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the African Democratic Congress (ADC). The court said that this issue had been settled by the Supreme Court in its judgement delivered on May 9, 2023, in the appeal by the PDP against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and three others. The court said that Obi ought not to have brought the issue before the Supreme Court again, knowing that it had been decided.

The court also awarded costs against Obi and his party for wasting the time of the court and filing a vexatious appeal. The court did not specify the amount of the costs.

The judgement of the Supreme Court has put an end to the legal challenges against Tinubu’s election, which he won with 55.6% of the votes, defeating Atiku, who got 41.2%, and Obi, who got 2.1%. Tinubu, who is a former governor of Lagos State and a leader of the APC, is Nigeria’s fifth president since the return to democracy in 1999. He was sworn in on May 29, 2023, for a four-year term.