Nigeria’s apex court, the Supreme Court has backed the Court of Appeal in its position that the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, is like other states.

The apex court took the position at it ongoing ruling on the appeals filed by Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi challenging the decision of the presidential election petition tribunal which upheld the victory of Bola Tinubu in the last presidential election.

The presiding justice of the panel, John Okoro, asked, “Are you saying if someone scores 25% votes in 30 states but not in Abuja, he should not be president? Is that how you interpret the law?

“That is not the law. Supreme Court agrees with the Court of Appeal,” he added.

Meanwhile, the apex also ruled that the failure of the Independent National Electoral Commission to transmit the election results on the INEC Result Viewing Portal did not affect the outcome of the presidential election.

Reading the lead judgment, Okoro said, “When IReV fails, it does not stop the collation of the results. It deprives people of viewing results. The nonfunction will affect the trust of the electorates in the election.

“Unavailability of IReV cannot be a ground for the election to be nullified.

“The failure did not affect the outcome of the election. The issue is resolved against the appellants. “

[hallmarknews]