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Supreme Court judgment: It’s time for more work, says victorious Pres.Tinubu

During Thursday's ruling, Justice Okoro held that fresh evidence runs foul of the Electoral Act, which says that “after the expiration of the time for presenting election petition, no amendment shall be made”.

Samuel AkpanOctober 26, 20231.6k

Buoyed by Thursday’s Supreme Court judgment, President Bola Tinubu has urged Nigerians to have a change of mindset, saying “we are members of one family.”

An elated President Tinubu said he had hit the ground running from day one, adding that the court ruling has also strengthened his resolve to work more for the country.

“We have started from day one to work hard regardless of the court cases. It has strengthened me to do more; a victory of this nature is more work and more dedication.

“This should appeal to the sense of patriotism of Nigerians to have a change of mindset, let us be positive about our country, be ready to contribute in all ways possible.

“We are all in this boat of diversity, member of the same family, living in the same house, but staying in different rooms.

“It is important we recognize that we have no other country but this one, we better be committed to it, not for the sake of our own self aggrandisement, but for the sake of our children and grand children the inheritors of this great country,” Persecondnews quotes Tinubu as saying.

The Supreme Court had on Thursday affirmed Tinubu as the duly elected President of Nigeria.

A seven-member panel of the Supreme Court led by Justice John Okoro, in a unanimous judgment on Thursday, dismissed the appeal of the Atiku Abubakar the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) as lacking merit.

The Supreme Court also rejected the application of the PDP candidate to file fresh evidence in his case against Tinubu on the Chicago State University certificate.

During Thursday’s ruling, Justice Okoro held that fresh evidence runs foul of the Electoral Act, which says that “after the expiration of the time for presenting election petition, no amendment shall be made”.

The judge also held that the appellants (Atiku and PDP) were “were tardy and not diligent enough” to obtain the records from CSU considering that they had one year since President Tinubu submitted his nomination form to INEC.

Persecondnews reports that following the petition of Atiku and Obi seeking to disqualify Tinubu due to his inability to win 25 percent in FCT in the February 25 presidential poll.

The learned silk said the justices agreed with the judgment of the Appeal Court that 25 per cent in FCT is immaterial, insisting there was nothing wrong with the tribunal’s decision.

The Supreme Court upheld the decision of the tribunal which struck out offensive paragraphs of a witness’ statement after examining the credibility of witnesses called during the hearing of the Tribunal.