Nigerian Opposition In Court Over Presidential Election Results

The Presidential Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja has dismissed the petition of the Action People's Party challenging the declaration of Bola Tinubu as the winner of the February 25 presidential election and subsequent declaration as the 'president-elect.' The dismissal of the petition followed an application by the party to withdraw its petition challenging the outcome of the election.

A tribunal has begun hearing a petition by several opposition candidates in Nigeria to annul All Progressives Congress Bola Tinubu's victory in the February 2023 presidential election.

Presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, and the Peoples Democratic Party candidate Atiku Abubakar, filed separate suits to challenge the ruling party's victory. Abubakar called the result "a rape of democracy" after receiving 29% of the vote, while Obi, who received 25%, told supporters they had been "robbed" of victory, vowing to "prove it to Nigerians".

The country's election commission declared Tinubu the winner of the election in a televised broadcast after he garnered 37% of the votes. But the two main opposition candidates rejected the result, questioning Tinubu's qualifications and alleging that results from the country's 177,000 polling stations were tampered with.

Election observers from the European Union, the Commonwealth, and other groups reported various problems, including failures in systems designed to prevent vote manipulation, but they did not allege fraud.