By Ise-Oluwa Ige And By Leon Usigbe
The Supreme Court yesterday laid to rest the dispute over the April 21, 2007 presidential poll by dismissing petitions brought before it by former military head of state, Major General Muhammadu Buhari of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and ex Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the Action Congress (AC). The Supreme in dismissing the petitions said both lacked merit.
But Buhari in his reaction said the apex court has let down the country's judiciary. At press briefing in Abuja after the judgement, Buhari said that while he accepted the decision as a democrat, he would never agree with it, stating his determination to remain in partisan politics for the sake of the toiling masses of the country.
"The verdict is not what the world is expecting, and it will be received throughout the country with shock, anger and disbelief. The international community too will, no doubt, be shocked and scandalized that an election which they themselves held as deeply flawed, a fact conceded on several occasions by the President himself, has been upheld by the Nigerian judiciary.
"The judgement of the Supreme Court has let the judiciary down, has disappointed the country and its esteem has gone with the Nigerian public and with the international community. They have forced a giant to pass through the eye of a needle," he said.
He remarked that his team had pursued the case in the belief that they were taking the action on behalf of Nigerians with the hope that the judiciary would examine their position on merit and arrive at a judgement based on facts presented in court.
"When the Court of Appeal, in flagrant disregard for facts presented, ruled that we did not present any evidence, we painstakingly re-presented them to the Supreme Court. Although the seven justices who constituted the panel that heard the two cases yesterday differed in their opinion on the validity of the election, majority decision of the court however saved Yar'Adua's job as it upheld his election."
However, the panel of seven justices, including the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Idris Legbo Kutigi which delivered judgments on the two cases yesterday agreed that the process that led to the emergence of Yar'Adua as the winner of the poll was marred with gross non compliance with the electoral laws.
The seven justices only parted way while entering their individual verdicts on whether or not to validate the election of President Yar'Adua given the substantiality of the non-compliance with the electoral laws.
Specifically, they differed on whether or not the non-compliance by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the conduct of the poll with the electoral laws was substantial enough to overturn the election.
For instance, in the Buhari's case against Yar'Adua, the Supreme Court gave the verdict to Yar'Adua by a split judgment of four to three.
In simple language, four of the seven-member panel said that although the election was marred with irregularities but that the non-compliance with the electoral laws was not substantial enough to invalidate the election.
The justices who teamed up to save Yar'Adua's job were the Chief Justice of Nigeria , Justice Idris Legbo Kutigi, Justice Katsina Alu, Justice Niki Tobi and Justice Dahiru Musdapher.
Justice Niki Tobi delivered the leading majority judgment that validated the presidential poll.
In the lead judgment, Justice Niki Tobi gave nine reasons why he would validate the election results as announced by the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC).
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