Six state governments controlled by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have withdrawn the suit challenging the victory of the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in last weekend’s election.
The states confirmed the development in a Notice of Discontinuance signed by their lawyer, Mr. Mike Ozekhome (SAN) Friday evening.
It read: “Take notice that the plaintiffs do hereby wholly discontinue this suit against the defendant herein.”
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had on Wednesday declared Tinubu as the winner of the February 25 election after polling 8,794,726 votes to defeat the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi of the Labour Party, and 15 other candidates in the exercise.
The Attorneys-General of Adamawa, Akwa-Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo, and Sokoto States had on Friday morning dragged the Federal Government before the apex court on the conduct, collation, and announcement of the elections’ results.
The plaintiffs in the originating summons marked: SC/CV/354/2023, asked the apex court to order a review of all results so far announced by INEC.
They alleged that the collation and announcement of the results were carried out contrary to the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022, the INEC Regulations and Guidelines for the Conduct of Elections, 2022; and the INEC Manual for Election Officials.
The states argued that the collation of the election results from the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory did not comply with the provisions of relevant sections of the Electoral Act, 2022.
They insisted that INEC officials failed to transmit the collated results as prescribed by the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022, and the INEC Regulations and Guidelines for the Conduct of Elections 2022.
The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, was listed as the sole respondent in the suit.