The Supreme Court has scheduled judgement for Thursday, October 26, in the appeals by Atiku Abubakar/the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi/Labour Party (LP) against the September 6 judgment of the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) which affirmed the victory of President Bola Tinubu in the last presidential election.

Five political parties including the PDP, LP, Action Peoples Party (APP), Allied Peoples Movement (APM), and the Action Alliance (AA) had lodged separate petitions before the tribunal, seeking to annul Tinubu’s victory, but only three made it to the Supreme Court.

A seven-member panel of the court, headed by Justice John Okoro, heard the appeals on Monday, October 23, and reserved judgment to a date to be communicated to parties.

The judges presiding over the appeal are:

1. Justice John Inyang Okoro

Justice Okoro will preside over the panel that will hear petitions against President Tinubu.

He is from Nung Ukim, Ikono Local Government Area in Akwa Ibom state.

He attended the Nigerian Law School, Lagos, and was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1985.

Justice Okoro was elevated to the Supreme Court on November 15, 2013.

He is currently the fourth most senior justice of the court.

2. Justice Uwani Musa Abba-Aji

Justice Abba Aji is the highest-ranking female judge on the Supreme Court bench and the panel’s sole female member.

She was born on November 7, 1956, in Gashua, Yobe State.

She was called to the Bar in 1981 and commenced her career as State Counsel in 1982.

She was appointed Higher Court Judge of Yobe State Judiciary in December 1991 making her the first Lady Judge at Yobe State Judiciary, a position she held until July 2004 when she was elevated to the Court of Appeal.

She was elevated to the Supreme Court on January 8, 2019.

3. Justice Ibrahim Saulawa

Justice Saulawa was born on September 29, 1956 in Katsina. Katsina State.

He was called to the Nigerian Bar on July 2, 1982.

Justice Saulawa was elevated to the Bench of the Court of Appeal on June 10. 2006.

After spending his time in the Nigerian legal scene, He was elevated to the Bench of the Supreme Court on November 10, 2020.

4. Justice Mohammed Lawal Garba

Justice Mohammed Lawal Garba was born on November 16, 1958.

He is from Gusau Local Government Area of Zamfara State.

He was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1981.

He was then appointed a Judge of the High Court of Justice, Sokoto State from 1993-1996.

He served as Chief Judge, High Court of Justice, Zamfara State from 1996-2004.

Remarkably, he served as a member of the Presidential Election Panel in 2011 and also as Chairman of the Presidential Election Panel that dismissed the petition that Atiku filed to challenge the election of former President Muhammadu Buhari, in 2019.

He was elevated to the Supreme Court on November 6, 2020.

5. Justice Tijjani Abubakar

Justice Tijjani Abubakar was born on April 15, 1960.

He hails from the Base Local Government Area of Yobe State.

After graduating from the Nigerian Law School, Justice Abubakar was called to the Bar in 1983.

He worked in several legal parastatals in Yobe state.

He was serving at the Lagos Division of the appellate court when he was elevated to the Supreme Court bench in 2020.

6. Justice Adamu Jauro

Justice Adamu Jauro was born on June 26, 1959.

He was born in Gombe State.

In 1980, he studied Law at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria where he bagged his law degree.

He was called to the bar in 1983 and immediately started working at the Ministry of Justice.

In 2007, he was promoted to the Court of Appeal and served in Jos, Lagos, Yola, Ibadan, and Port Harcourt.

Justice Jauro was elevated to the Supreme Court bench in November 2020.

7. Justice Emmanuel Agim

Justice Emmanuel Agim was born on April 26, 1960, in Obudu, Cross Rivers State.

He served as chief justice of Gambia from 2009 to 2013.

He was also a former chief justice of Swaziland.

He is also a former justice at the Nigerian Courts of Appeal and currently a Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.

He obtained his first degree at the University of Calabar LLB (Hons), then BL from Nigerian Law School Lagos, and subsequently LLM from the University of Wolverhampton, United Kingdom. (The Nation)

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