Six states under the control of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which had approached the Supreme Court to nullify the collatjin and announcement of results of the 2023 presidential election had withdrawn their suit.
The states are: Adamawa State, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo, Taraba and Sokoto.
They had gone to court through their team of lawyers led by Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN.
However, on Friday, they filed a notice of discontinuance of the case.
The motion for discontinuance, according to our findings are based on the fact that the suit had become mere academic exercise, since INEC, which the plaintiffs wanted to stop, had announced the results of the election.
They had approached the apex court in the suit marked: SC/CV/354/2023, alleging that INEC had breached its own rules and aspects of the Electoral Act in the conduct of the election and also alleged that the commission had pulled down its portal harbouring the Regulations and Guidelines it earlier set for the elections.
Consequently, they applied for an order of the apex court, mandating “a holistic review of all results so announced as at then “by the Federal Government of Nigeria through the INEC” which were carried out other than through the manner prescribed by the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022, the INEC Regulations and Guidelines for the Conduct of Elections, 2022; and the INEC Manual for Election Officials”.
Also, they prayed for an order, “directing a wholistic review of all results so far announced by the Federal Government of Nigeria through the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) which were carried out other than through the manner prescribed by the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022, the INEC Regulations and Guidelines for the Conduct of Elections, 2022; and the INEC Manual for Election Officials”.
Even though Ozekhome said they withdrew the matter since it had become mute, some other sources speculate that the decision withdraw was a matter of strategy, given the assertion by the PDP candidate, Atiku Abubakar that the declaration would be challenged.
The plaintiffs had gone before the apex court to challenge the outcome of Presidential and National Assembly elections that held on February 25, insisting that INEC acted in breach of the Electoral Act, 2022.
The plaintiffs maintained that election results from the 36 states of the federation and the FCT, were not properly transmitted and collated by INEC, as prescribed by the Electoral Act.
They had prior to the notice of discontinuance, applied for accelerated hearing of the case.
It will be recalled that INEC had declared Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, as winner of the presidential election.
Tinubu defeated 17 other candidates to be declared winner.
He scored 8,794,726 votes to defeat Atiku Abubakar of the PDP, who polled 6,984,520 botes, while Peter Obi of the Labour Party, who came third garnered a total of 6,101,533 votes.
