Dismiss Appeal To Swear-In Atiku As President, Buhari Tells Court

President Muhammadu Buhari has asked the Court of Appeal in Abuja to throw out an appeal seeking to nullify his election.

The Nigerian leader also asked the appellate court to dismiss the appeal to swear in former vice president Abubakar Atiku as President.

Naija News reporrs that the Nigerian leader was reacting to an appeal filed by the Incorporated Trustees of the Civil Society Observatory for Constitutional and Legal Compliance (CSOCLC) before the appellate court.

The civil society organisation in an appeal claimed that the affidavit made by the President in the 2019 general elections was false, asking the court to order the swearing-in of Abubakar.

It stated that all the academic qualification documents as filled by the President in his Presidential Form which is currently with the Secretary, Military Board as at the time of the affidavit are false.

The group said in the event its reliefs succeeds, the appeal court should nullify the election that produce President Buhari and withdraw the certificate of return to office issued to him in 2019.

It also wants the court to issue a new certificate of return to Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), being the candidate who came second in the 2019 general elections.

At the resumed hearing on Wednesday, F. O. Amedu, counsel to the President, said the inability of the group to prove its allegation beyond reasonable grounds at the lower crime was fatal to their case.

They stated that the Supreme Court had resolved the subject matter of the appeal in an earlier case involving Abubakar, maintaining that under the doctrine of stare decisis, the appellate court must stand by the earlier decision of the apex court.

However, the three-member panel presided by Justice Haruna Tsamani adjourned the appeal to May 18 to enable the parties to reconcile the issue of representation.