By Camillus Eboh
ABUJA (Reuters) – Six opposition-led Nigerian states have asked the Supreme Court to declare the outcome of last weekend’s presidential election invalid, saying the electoral body breached the law and its own rules during the count, court papers showed.
Ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) party candidate Bola Tinubu was declared the winner, but the two main opposition challengers have said the result was fraudulent and vowed to challenge it in court.
Six of Nigeria’s 36 states – Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo and Sokoto – said in court papers dated Feb. 28 that the election body had failed to transmit results electronically through a system meant to show transparency.
They sought a court declaration that all presidential election results announced by the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) “were invalid, null and void, and of no effect whatsoever”.
There was no immediate comment on the case from the government, Tinubu’s campaign council, the INEC or the Attorney General of Nigeria, Abubakar Malami, who was formally cited as respondent in the lawsuit.
The states are led by governors from the main opposition People’s Democratic Party, whose candidate Atiku Abubakar came second in the presidential election, according to the official tally.
Election observers from the European Union, the Commonwealth and other bodies reported a range of problems, among them failures in systems designed to prevent vote manipulation.
The observers criticised INEC for poor planning and voting delays but did not allege fraud. The commission itself apologised for the technical problems during the count.
In Nigeria, elections are challenged at the Appeals Court, which sits as a tribunal.
But the six states sidestepped that normal process and instead sued the federal government, not INEC, arguing that this was a constitutional case, which falls within the jurisdiction of the highest court in Nigeria.
No date has been set for a hearing, according to the Supreme Court register.
There have been numerous legal challenges to the outcome of past Nigerian presidential elections but none has succeeded.
(Writing by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
