The Supreme Court has ruled it cannot accept new evidence not presented at the Presidential Election Tribunal or at the lower court.
In the ongoing Presidential Election case, the apex court ruled that it can not accept new evidence at the moment
Justice Okoro ruled held IREV portal is not a collation system to throw away allegation On INEC’s Non-compliance With Electronic Transmission Of Result.
The judge also held that the petitioners must not only state the non-compliance with the electronic transmission of election results but also state how it substantially affected the outcome of the election.
On Two-thirds Of Votes At FCT: Justice Okoro held that the case lacks merit and has been dismissed.
It was stated that Scoring of 25% of votes in the FCT is not a mandatory requirement for the declaration of a candidate as the winner of the presidential election.
On Witnesses Called: The petitioners failed to call any polling unit agents as witnesses to testify in the case.
The statements given by the state & national collation agents as witnesses were hearsay, as they were not present in all the polling units.
They were most likely informed by the polling unit agents who were alive but failed to testify in the case.
The Supreme Court holds that in disputing election results, the petitioners must not only dispute the results but also give the results scored by them and the respondents.
Justice Okoro of the Supreme Court added that the result declared by the returning officer is assumed to be correct, and the appellants disputing must show figures to prove that the result is wrong.
The Supreme Court added that for a case decided in a different country to be accepted in Nigeria, it must be authenticated by relevant authorities.
The deposition filed by Atiku on the forgery of the Chicago State University certificate by Tinubu was not authenticated.
The Supreme Court wondered why Atiku failed to use the deposition it tendered to get an official letter from Chicago State University disproving the certificate tendered by Tinubu.
