A Nigerian court on Wednesday dismissed a major opposition petition to overturn President Bola Ahmed Tinubu's February election victory after a highly contested ballot.

Judges dismissed all claims made by Labour Party candidate Peter Obi, including fraud, charges the electoral authority broke the law and allegations Tinubu was not eligible to run.

"This petition is hereby declared unmeritorious," one of the judges said in the Abuja courtroom after more than six hours reading out their detailed judgement.

The court was also set to read its judgement on the second major opposition claim.

Filed by Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate Atiku Abubakar, it lays out similar complaints against the February 25 election results.

The challenges came after one of the country's most tightly fought elections, where former Lagos governor Tinubu won 37 percent of the vote, beating Abubakar and Obi to secure the presidency of Africa's most populous nation.

The decision will most likely now to head to appeal in the Supreme Court, which has never ruled to overturn a Nigerian presidential election since the country returned to democracy from military rule in 1999.

Legal teams in white wigs and black robes packed into the courtroom early Wednesday to hear judges read through each detail of the lengthy judgement.

Judges had also earlier dismissed a smaller opposition claim to annul the election.

Tinubu's government had dismissed all claims of wrongdoing and appeared confident before Wednesday's decision.

(AFP)

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