The judges at the Presidential Election Tribunal court in Abuja have lampooned the opposition parties for petitioning the election appeal court by partly relying on allegations of election malpractice from a report by the European Union Election Observation Mission (EU-EOM).
According to details of the Certified-True-Copy (CTC) of the ruling by a five-judge panel led by Justice Haruna Tsammani which decided on Wednesday that Mr Tinubu was legitimately elected President of Nigeria, the judges also questioned the integrity of the international observer mission over its report on election-related matters every four years.
The judges further charged the EU mission with interfering with Nigeria’s electoral process while remaining utterly silent regarding the results of the 2020 US presidential election, despite widespread criticism, particularly from Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump, who claimed that the election was tainted with irregularities.
While the EU released its report in July detailing how the elections were flawed, the opposition presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) approached the tribunal as part of his evidence against the APC alleging that the latter had rigged the elections.
However, in its ruling on Wednesday, the judges said the EU report did not have any value other than the mere sheets of paper on which it is recorded.
It went on to berate the petitioners for acting delusional per the details of the EU report was the exact “gospel truth” at what transpired at the February presidential elections.
It also stated that regardless of whether the authors of the EU report had presented themselves in court to defend their opinions, the report would remain a complete non sequitur.