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Atiku, Peter Obi heading to court? How presidential elections cases since 1999 ended 

The opposition parties Peoples Democratic Party and Labour Party have expressed their desire to challenge in court, the outcome of the 2023 elections, which threw up the flag bearer of the All Progressives Congress Bola Tinubu as the winner.
Tinubu scored 8,794,726 votes to beat  Atiku Abubakar who polled  6,984,520 votes to the second position.
Peter Obi of the LP scored 6,101,533 votes to finish third while Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party garnered 1,496,687 to end up in fourth position.
The PDP and the Labour Party have both rejected the results and have vowed to challenge the validity of the process conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission in court.
The winner of the polls, Tinubu who extended the olive branch to his competitors during his acceptance speech, also admonished them to seek redress in court if they feel shortchanged during the process but cautioned them against resorting to incitements.
However, the experiences of those who have threaded the path of seeking justice after a presidential election, have shown that it is a journey that has not yielded positive results for petitioners.
Olusesan Oba in this piece highlights the outcomes of the legal journeys of presidential election losers since 1999.
Olu Falae vs Olusegun Obasanjo (1999)
A former Secretary to the Government of The Federation Olu Falae contested on the joint platform of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) and All Peoples Party (APP) against the General Olusegun Obasanjo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 1999 presidential election which ushered in the Fourth Republic.
At the end of the exercise conducted on February 27, Falae lost to Obasanjo after scoring 11,110,287 votes against 18,739,154 recorded by his opponent.
However, Falae rejected the outcome of the polls and sought redress in court. He alleged that the polls were marred by irregularities and manipulations;  he also urged the Appeal Court to disqualify Obasanjo for being a member of a secret society, Ogboni and because the former Gnereal was also found guilty of treason and treasonable felony by a military tribunal, he should not have stood to run in the elections.
However, the Court of Appeal dismissed the petition in its entirety saying no concrete proof to substantiate the allegation of irregularities and malpractices. Interestingly, Falae elected not to pursue the matter at the Supreme Court.
Obasanjo vs Muhammadu Buhari (2003)
The 2003 contest was between President Obasanjo vs then General Muhammadu Buhari of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP).
Buhari condemned the outcome of the polls held on April 19, 2003, alleging irregularities and rigging. He consequently headed for the tribunal which dismissed his petitions.
The former Military Head of State also failed at the Appeal Court despite getting a favourable minority judgement from Justice Sylvanus Nwafor, before experiencing another crushing defeat at the Supreme Court which delivered its judgement on July 1, 2005, in a unanimous decision of a panel of seven justices, upheld the Court of Appeal judgment, and dismissed Buhari’s petition in its entirety.
Musa Yar’Adua vs Buhari, Atiku Abubakar (2007)
The 2007 election was peculiar because it offered Nigeria the chance of witnessing the transfer of power from a civilian government to another and the incumbent President Obasanjo backed Katsina State Governor, the late Umaru Yar’Adua, of his party, the PDP during the 2007 polls.
Yar’Adua polled  24.6 million votes, the highest in the history of Nigeria, to defeat his main challengers Buhari of the ANPP and Atiku Abubakar of the  Action Congress (AC) in an election held on April 21, 2007.
Both Atiku and Buhari battled against the results up to the Supreme Court and the judgement delivered by the apex court on December 12, 2008, was a splitting one which favoured the defendant.
Then Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Idris Legbo Kutigi, his successor Aloysius Iyorger Kastina-Alu, the late Justice Niki Tobi, and Musdapher (who also became CJN), dismissed the Buhari’s appeal and upheld Yar’Adua’s election.
Former CJN Justice Maryam Aloma Mukhtar, Justice Walter Onnoghen and Justice George Oguntade (rtd), gave dissenting judgments, holding that there was substantial non-compliance with the Electoral Act 2007, which vitiated the election.
Goodluck Jonathan vs Buhari (2011)
Unfortunately, Yar’adua could not finish his tenure due to death which was seen out by his vice Goodluck Jonathan.
Jonathan flew the flag of the ruling PDP in an election conducted on April 11, 2011, and defeated his main opponent, Buhari, with 22,495,187 votes.
Expectedly, Buhari who ran on the platform of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) headed for the court again. He lost at the tribunal and the December 28, 2011 ruling of the Supreme Court was equally unfavourable to him.
In a seven to zero, the court affirmed the elections of Jonathan saying Buhari was unable to prove cases of irregularities in the elections.
Justice Olufunmilayo Adekeye, in the lead judgment, said: “The judgment of the lower court is affirmed and consequently the third respondent (Goodluck Jonathan) …won the election conducted on 16 April 2011.”
Jonathan vs Buhari (2015)
Buhari returned to the ballot paper to contest the presidential polls for the fourth time, this time on the platform of the newly-formed All Progressives Congress.
The election was held on March 28, 2015, which saw the emergence of Buhari as the winner after polling 15,424,921 votes dislodging the incumbent Jonathan who recorded 12,853,162 votes.
However, Jonathan elected not to contest the outcome of the elections.  “nobody’s ambition is worth the blood of any Nigerian,” he had said.
Buhari vs Atiku (2019)
February 23,  2019 election was a keen contest between Buhari and Atiku with the incumbent president emerging victorious.
Buhari scored 15,191,847 votes while Atiku recorded 11,262,978. Dissatisfied with the result, the former vice-president headed to court to seek invalidation of the result of the polls.
The Presidential Election Petition Tribunal affirmed the election of President Buhari but Atiku pursued the case up to the Supreme Court.
However, on  October 30, 2019, the apex dismissed the 66-grounds of appeal filed by Atiku.
The seven-member panel of Justices of the apex court, headed by the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Ibrahim Tanko Muhamad, in the unanimous judgement, held that the appeal lacked merit and consequently dismissed it.

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Written by Olusesan Oba

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