The Supreme Court of Nigeria ruled on Thursday that the failure of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to electronically transmit election results did not invalidate the outcome of the February 25 presidential election.
In a leading judgment, Justice John Okoro stated that the lack of electronic transmission did not affect the final result and is not grounds to nullify President Bola Tinubu's victory. Okoro also dismissed concerns over Tinubu meeting the 25% threshold in Abuja as irrelevant.
The judgment comes in response to appeals filed by People's Democratic Party (PDP) candidate Atiku Abubakar and Labour Party candidate Peter Obi. Both had petitioned the court to overturn Tinubu's win over irregularities like the lack of electronic result transmission.
However, the Supreme Court affirmed that the manual transmission of results did not compromise the integrity of the election that saw Tinubu emerge victorious. The court ruled that the non-electronic process was not significant enough to warrant an annulment.
Atiku had also presented a deposition from Chicago State University denying Tinubu’s degree credentials, but the court dismissed arguments that this could invalidate the result.
With its ruling, the Supreme Court has upheld the outcome of the February vote that handed Tinubu the presidency barring any unforeseen reversals as the judgment continues.