Nigeria’s Supreme Court has begun hearing the opposition’s challenge to the February 2023 presidential election result.
The poll was won by Bola Tinubu but his main opponents – Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi – want the country’s highest court to overturn the judgement of the Election Petition Court, which upheld Mr Tinubu’s victory.
The legal challenge threatens to heighten tensions and continue the polarisation of the country along political party lines.
It may take a few weeks before the seven judges on the Supreme Court panel make a ruling on the matter.
If it upholds the decision of the lower court, that would be following a pattern seen in previous elections in Africa’s most populous nation where a presidential election result has never been overturned.
Nonetheless, Mr Abubakar has said he would be presenting new evidence to the court relating to the debate over whether the president had presented a fake educational certificate to the electoral commission as proof of his eligibility.
But Mr Tinubu is opposing the presentation of new evidence.
He is asking the court not to grant his opponent’s application to introduce fresh and additional evidence to support the new claim.
The Election Petition Court had earlier ruled that both opposition candidates had failed to prove that the election was flawed.
The judges declared that the petitioners were unable to prove their case that there had been over-voting and voter suppression.