President Bola Tinubu expresses gratitude for the Tribunal's judgment, pledging to serve all Nigerians regardless of political, religious, or tribal affiliations. He extends a call for support from rivals Atiku Abubakar (PDP) and Peter Obi (LP).
While attending the G20 summit in India, Tinubu commends the panel's diligence, thoroughness, and professionalism of the five-member panel led by Justice Haruna Tsammani in their interpretation of the law.
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The Court of Appeal in Abuja, where the Presidential Election Petition Court has affirmed Bola Tinubu as the validly elected President of Nigeria.
The head of the five-member panel of the court, who delivered the lead judgment, Justice Haruna Tsammani, made the pronouncement after dismissing the petition of Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
Atiku’s case was the third and last of the petitions, aimed at the credibility of the 25 February presidential election, to be dismissed by the court in its record 12-hour-long judgment on Wednesday.
The court dismissed the Labour Party’s Peter Obi and the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) petitions earlier.
Justice Tsammani held that the three petitions were not proved.
The three petitions alleged the non-qualification of Tinubu and Kashim Shettima to run for the presidency, irregularities and corrupt practices during the election, and failure of Tinubu to meet full constitutional requirements to be declared the winner of the election due to his inability to secure 25 per cent of the votes in Abuja, the federal capital.
The court resolved all the issues formulated to determine the cases against the petitioners and in favour of Tinubu and the other respondents.
The court ruled that none of the allegations were proven with credible evidence.
The panel-Justices Stephen Adah, Monsurat Bolaji-Yusuf, Moses Ugo, and Abba Mohammed adopted the reasoning and conclusions in the lead judgement.
Here is Justice Ugo during his examination of the Presidential Election Based on the allegation of jumbo votes by the LP.
According to her, the way to win the reality show is to attract the viewers with one's emotional and touching story. She added that the pity strategy was different from one she was interested in playing.
The reality TV star/DJ explained, "If you want to win the show, you need to have a pity story... but that's not my character to want people to pity me".
Aside from sharing her thoughts on what it takes to win the show, she commented on her refusal to go on the usual media tour, which was supposed to follow after she became the fourth BBNaija All Stars housemate to be evicted on August 26, 2023. In her words, "I wanted to be selfish with my time, I did not want to wake up early for anybody, I did not want to do make-up for one week straight".
She also addressed the fight she had with Cee-C and Ilebaye, as well as her regrets about her response to the issue. She divulged, "How I handled it at the time made a lot of sense to me; if I could do things differently rather than exploding, I would have a conversation with them".
Tolanibaj also revealed that her game on BBNaija All Stars wasn't to win the ₦120 million grand prizes but to have fun instead. "The game that I played even backfired. I did not go there to win the money, if you remember, on day one, when they asked, I said no pressure, I'm just here", she stated.
In a few weeks, we will know if Tolanibaj's pity strategy theory will be the right tool to win the show.
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The Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC), based in Abuja, has ruled on the allegations surrounding President Bola Tinubu's alleged drug trafficking conviction in the United States of America (USA).
In a joint petition filed by the Labour Party and its candidate, Mr Peter Obi, the court has dismissed the claim, affirming that the evidence presented indicates that the $460,000 fine imposed on President Tinubu in the US was related to a civil matter.
The court clarified that this fine did not constitute a criminal conviction that could justify disqualifying Tinubu from running in the presidential election held on February 25. Justice Haruna Tsammani, who led the five-member panel, emphasised that upon careful examination of the exhibits presented, it became evident that the case leading to the fine imposed on President Tinubu belonged to the civil docket in the US courts.
Contrary to the petitioner's arguments, the court clarified that this case was a civil forfeiture proceeding involving bank funds rather than a personal action against Tinubu himself. Such civil forfeiture proceedings, the court explained, are targeted at the property rather than the owner.
Additionally, the court held that Obi and the Labour Party failed to provide evidence demonstrating that Tinubu was indicted, prosecuted, tried, or convicted for any criminal offence in the USA. The court noted that a letter from the Inspector General of Police in 2003 and subsequent confirmation from the American Embassy showed no criminal record against Tinubu in their centralised information centre.
The court emphasised that these documents, the letter from the Inspector General of Police and the response from the US Embassy, were public and admissible as evidence. Furthermore, the petitioners could not establish that Tinubu had been tried and convicted for any dishonesty-related offence.
Lastly, the court pointed out that ten years had passed since the fine was imposed on Tinubu, making it an invalid ground for seeking his disqualification. Consequently, the court dismissed this aspect of the petition filed by the Labour Party and Mr Peter Obi aimed at nullifying President Tinubu's election.
The petitioners had raised concerns about Tinubu's eligibility to contest the presidential election, alleging that he had previously been indicted and fined $460,000 by the United States District Court, Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, in Case No: 93C 4483, for an offence involving dishonesty and drug trafficking. They argued that such an indictment constituted grounds for disqualification under section 137 (1) (d) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.
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