Nigeria’s Supreme Court on Friday gave reasons for the failure of the petition filed by opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) against the election of President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The Court which on October 30m 2019 dismissed the petition of PDP’s presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, said on Friday in Abuja that President Muhammadu Buhari was eminently qualified to contest for the 2019 Presidential Elections.
Abubakar, the court explained failed to prove that Buhari was not educated up to secondary school level.
In unanimous judgement of seven justices, the court held that Buhari did not need to submit his school certificate to contest election.
Justice John Okoro read the submissions of the Chief Justice of the Federation (CJN) in the absence of the counsel of the plaintiff.
The court held that the failure of the appellants to call credible witnesses was fatal to their case as they presented only five witnesses including a star witness who relied on hearsay evidence.
He added that the appellants failed to prove issues of over voting when it could not produce authentic voters register to validate its claim.
Okoro stated that the unanimous decision of the court delivered on the 30th of October, 2019 is in total agreement with the verdict of the lower court which upheld and affirmed the election of President Muhammadu Buhari.
The court held that contrary to claim by the appellants, no law requires a candidate to submit his/her academic certificates to INEC before being allowed to contest election.
The Supreme Court also held that the constitution does not require one to possess secondary school certificate to be qualified, but that schooling up to secondary school, without possessing the result of the final examination was sufficient.
It said, Buhari did not only show that he has secondary certificate and rose to the rank of Major General in the Army, attended military training, became the nation’s Head of State, could communicate in English and possessed primary school leaving certificate, all to the satisfaction of INEC.
