Nigerian opposition candidate Mohammadu Buhari has asked the Supreme Court to overturn an election tribunal ruling upholding the victory of President Umaru Yar’Adua in the April 2007 vote, his lawyer said on Monday.
Last week, the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal dismissed the request of Buhari and another opposition candidate, Atiku Abubakar, that the poll be annulled and re-run on grounds of electoral fraud.
Buhari’s lawyer, Mike Ahamba, said he filed an appeal to the Supreme Court on Friday seeking a reversal of the ruling in favour of his client.
No date has been fixed for a hearing.
A retired army general, Buhari ruled Nigeria for December 1983 to August 1985, and unsuccessfully contested last year’s presidential election for the All Nigeria People’s Party.
He also lost the 2003 presidential vote and he pursued his appeal against that ruling until the bitter end.
Abubakar’s lawyers also vowed shortly after the tribunal’s verdict that he would appeal, but he has yet to do so.
”We don’t agree with the judgement and we are appealing against it,” Rickey Tarfa, one of Atiku’s lawyers, told reporters.
Both local and international observers said the 2007 polls — presidential, legislative and state governorship — were marred by serious fraud nationwide. — AFP