Atiku, Obi vs Tinubu: 3 things that may happen at Supreme Court

Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) have shown that they are ready to go all the way to redeem their alleged stolen mandate from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of All Progressives Congress (APC).

Both presidential candidates have filed petitions at the Supreme Court challenging the verdict of the Presidential Election Petition Court which upheld the victory of President Tinubu at the February 25 election.

The former vice president is asking the Supreme Court to cancel the judgement of the Election Petition Court because it has many mistakes and the judges showed bias in delivering their verdict.

Atiku described the tribunal judgement as an error and miscarriage of justice, stating that Tinubu did not secure the majority of lawful votes cast during the presidential election.

Obi said the election tribunal overlooked the facts he presented during them in delivering their judgement in favour of President Tinubu.

The Labour Party candidate said the court arrived at the wrong conclusion because it failed to consider the evidence that was brought before it.

The former Anambra governor argued that Tinubu was not qualified to contest the election because of his conviction in the United States for alleged drug trafficking.

In this article, Legit.ng, we look at the three things that may happen at the Supreme Court.

The first thing that might likely happen at the Supreme Court is that the apex court will affirm the victory of President Tinubu.

This will not be strange as the Supreme Court has never sacked a sitting President since the return of democracy in 1999.

From Olu Falae of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) to Muhammadu Buhari of the All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) and Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and Atiku of the PDP, the results are the same - they all lost.

The second likely verdict that the Supreme Court might deliver is to nullify the victory of President Tinubu and order a rerun among the top three contenders – Tinubu, Atiku and Obi.

This scenario has been suggested by many who felt the 2023 presidential election was not free, fair and credible.

Some persons believe that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) a rerun will offer the electoral body another chance to follow its rules in conducting a general election.

Speaking on this, the South-West General Secretary of the PDP, Chief Rahmon Owokoniran, condemned INEC for not sticking to the promise to use BVAS and IRev portal for transmitting results.

During an interview with The Punch, Owokoniran, who served as a commissioner under Tinubu when he was the Lagos state governor said: “How can the election tribunal of a country decide that it is okay for INEC to do as it pleases knowing how much was invested by the nation to create the BVAS and the INEC Results Viewing portal? That judgment was like a status quo.”

This is another likely judgment that the apex court might sack President Tinubu and declare either Atiku or Obi as the winner of the 2023 presidential election.

The counsels of Atiku and Obi will have to prove their case at the Supreme Court as new evidence will not be considered in delivering the verdict.