Adamawa, Sokoto, 5 others drop case challenging Tinubu's victory in Supreme Court

Adamawa, Sokoto, and five other Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) states have decided to discontinue their suit at the Supreme Court challenging the victory and subsequent declaration of Ahmed Bola Tinubu as president-elect.

The discontinuation was made known on Friday by Mike Ozekhome, counsel to the aggrieved states, who said that the change of mind was influenced by the recent turn of events, especially as the results have already been announced and a president-elect has been declared.

“The plaintiff doth hereby wholly discontinue this suit against the defendant herein,” Ozekhome said in the statement sent to the Supreme Court.

Earlier, in the suit, the seven states had asked the Supreme Court to intervene in the just concluded general elections, as they claimed that the declaration of Tinubu did not follow the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) rule and the amended Electoral Act of 2022, particularly the uploading of results to the iRev through the BVAS.

The suit had the attorneys general of the seven PDP states as plaintiffs and the Attorney General of the Federation as defendant.

“Most Nigerians, including the Governments and peoples of Adamawa, Akwa Ibom State, Bayelsa State, Delta State, Edo, and Sokoto state, are entitled to a proper and electoral lawful process and procedure that guarantees a free, fair, transparent and credible election.

“There is no justifiable basis for the ongoing collation of results without compliance with the mandatory provisions of the law that mandatorily require the use of BVAs, electronic transmission to the IRev Portal,” they said.

The states said that the motivation behind their earlier suit was to forestall any potential breakdown of public order and civil disobedience.

The plaintiffs “asked that the entire results of the presidential election conducted on February 25, announced by the Chairman of INEC, at the National Collation Centre, Abuja, was in flagrant breach of provisions of Sections 25; 47(2); 60 (1), (2), (4) & (5); 62; 64(4)(a) & (b); 70; and 148 of the Electoral Act, 2022.”