ABUBAKAR ATIKU & PEOPLES DEMOCRATIC PARTY (PDP) V. INDEPENDENT NATIONAL ELECTORAL COMMISSION (INEC), TINUBU BOLA AHMED & ALL PROGRESSIVES CONGRESS (APC)

JOHN INYANG OKORO, JSC (Delivering the Leading Judgment): This is an appeal against the judgment of the Court of Appeal (sitting as the Presidential Election Petition Court) in suit No. CA/PEPC/05/2023 and delivered on 6th September, 2023. In the said judgment, the court below substantially sustained the respondents' objections to the petition, the petitioner's reply to the respondents' respective replies, the competence of witnesses subpoenaed by the petitioners and the admissibility of several documents sought to be tendered by the appellants. After resolving all the issues in favour of the respondents, the lower court dismissed the petition for lacking in merit. Dissatisfied with the dismissal of the petition, the appellants filed notice of appeal on 18th September, 2023.

A brief fact of the case giving birth to this appeal are that election into the office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria was conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on 25th F…