“Stories against me are not true” — Tinubu sends 42-page letter to Supreme Court

President Bola Tinubu has submitted a 42-paged brief of argument to the Supreme Court, requesting the dismissal of an appeal filed by the 2023 candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.

At the heart of the matter is Atiku’s effort to nullify Tinubu’s election victory.

Tinubu’s legal team, which includes 17 lawyers, with 10 of them being Senior Advocates of Nigeria, is urging the apex court to uphold the Court of Appeal’s decision, which dismissed Atiku’s joint petition with the PDP challenging Tinubu’s presidential election win.

The Court of Appeal had previously made its ruling on September 6.

Tinubu argues that he was validly elected as President by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the February 25 presidential election.

He asserts that he secured 25% of the total votes in 29 states of Nigeria, which is in line with the constitutional requirement.

In contrast, he claims that Atiku and the PDP only managed to secure 25% of the total votes in 21 states, falling short of the constitutional requirement of 24.7 states.

Tinubu insists that he fulfilled all the constitutional requirements and therefore, INEC had no choice but to declare him the winner of the presidential election.

The case began when Atiku and the PDP, dissatisfied with the election results, approached the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) on March 21.

They alleged non-compliance with the Electoral Act, corrupt practices, non-majority vote counts, and questioned Tinubu’s qualification.

Tinubu, however, argues that the allegations made by the petition were unsupported by facts.

He asserts that the petition’s allegations, including discrepancies in his academic qualifications and dual nationality, were vague and lacked specificity.

Atiku and the PDP did not provide specific polling unit data to support their claims of non-compliance and corrupt practices.

Tinubu also pointed out that out of 27 witnesses presented by Atiku, 13 of them did not have their witness statements included with the petition.

In conclusion, President Tinubu called on the Supreme Court to dismiss Atiku’s appeal, claiming that it lacks merit and to affirm INEC’s declaration of his election victory, as he secured the highest number of lawful votes and met all constitutional requirements.