THE judgment Wednesday 6 September by the Presidential Election Petition Court(PEPC) will go down in the records as the longest ever in Nigeria’s judiciary.
To give the judgment on the cases filed by Atiku Abubakar, Peter Gregory and the Allied Peoples Movement against the election of President Bola Tinubu, the five justices saddled with the historic task took their seats at 9.30 a.m.
For 12 hours 30 minutes after, the judges delivered a marathon of a judgement, observing only a 15 minute break.
It got to a stage that the Court of Appeal room where the judgment was being delivered became half empty as the array of politicians left at about 6.30 pm to observe the evening prayers, leaving the lawyers and journalists with the justices.
Some of them returned later, but the judges were just unrelenting until they finished their task and wrote their names in history.
The judges unanimously said Atiku’s petition and those of Peter Obi and the APM were devoid of merit.
They affirmed the declaration of President Tinubu by INEC as the duly elected President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Justice Stephen Adah, adopted the lead judgement by the chairman, Justice Hassan Tsammani, by affirming the declaration of Tinubu as the duly elected president of Nigeria.
The only female judge on the panel, Justice Misitura Bolaji-Yusuf, also affirmed the election of Tinubu by adopting the reasoning in the lead judgement.
Justice Moses Ugoh, the youngest of them, took his turn to deliver his opinion. He also agreed with the reasoning and conclusion of the lead judgment on the three petitions.
Justice Abba Muhammed also affirmed Tinubu’s election by similarly concurring with the reasoning and conclusion of the lead judgment.
He dismissed all three petitions by Atiku, Peter Obi, and APM.
His opinion makes the judgement of the five-member panel of the Presidential Election Petition Court affirming President Tinubu’s election a unanimous decision.
9.55 p.m: The last of the five members of the panel, Abbah Mohammed, makes the final pronouncement, disissing all three petitions.
By the time the curtains were drawn, the judgement lasted a whole 12 hours, 30 minutes.
