By Jennifer Y Omiloli
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court issued its first ruling against the Democratic People’s Party and its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
The Supreme Court dismissed the objection raised by the Democratic Party of the People, the PDP, and its candidate, Atiku Abubakar, against its decision to consolidate seven appeals related to the re-election of President Muhammad Buhari.
Atiku and his party are challenging President Muhammadu Buhari’s victory at the February 23, 2019 poll before the appeal court.
Nigeria’s Chief Justice, Justice Tanko Muhammad, who leads the appeal court’s seven-man panel, overruled Atiku and his party’s request to hear their seven interlocutory appeals after the main one had to be argued.
The panel indicated that hearing the interlocutory appeals would be unnecessary when a judgment on the main appeal marked SC.1211/2019 will cover the area.
Shortly after the appeal court decided to use the substantive appeal marked SC/1211/19 to determine the outcome of all the other appeals, all the parties were ordered to adopt their briefs.
In its ruling, the appeal court held that it would consolidate all the appeals to comply with one judgment.
While the plaintiffs urged the apex court to allow their appeal and nullify the re-election of President Buhari, the defendants urged the court to reject the appeal and uphold the lower court’s unanimous decision.
