The appeal of an opposition candidate to overturn a court ruling upholding President Bola Tinubu’s victory in the February elections was heard by Nigeria’s Supreme Court on Monday.
A court rejected requests by Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party and Peter Obi of the Labour Party to overturn Tinubu’s election due to alleged fraud and irregularities in September after months of deliberation.
In the voting, the two men had placed second and third, respectively.
The judges had made a “serious error” in the ruling, according to Abubakar’s appeal, which was immediately filed.
On this most recent challenge, the seven Supreme Court justices are anticipated to rule in the upcoming weeks. In petitions for the presidential election, it has the last say.
In a fairly peaceful election in February, about 25 million Nigerians cast ballots, although there were problems with the electronic transfer of results and delays in the counting.
The final results, which showed Tinubu winning with 37% of the vote, were enthusiastically acclaimed by the international community.
In Nigeria, which experienced the return of democracy in 1999, no judicial challenge to the results of a presidential election has ever been successful.