The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in last February’s election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has said that the position of the Supreme Court, affirming President Bola Tinubu as the winner of the poll, leaves many questions unanswered.
At a press conference on national issues in Abuja on Monday, Atiku said: “We showed irrefutable evidence of gross irregularities, violence, and manipulations during the elections. We showed incontrovertible evidence that INEC violated the Electoral Act and deliberately sabotaged its own publicly announced processes and procedures in order to illegally declare Tinubu elected. The position of the Supreme Court, even though final, leaves so much unanswered.
“Even the rebuke by retired Justice Musa Dattijo Muhammad is a confirmation from within the apex court that all is not well with the Supreme Court. The court and indeed the judiciary must never lend itself to politicization as it is currently the norm with nearly every institution in Nigeria.
“By the way, the strong rebuke of the apex court by the revered Justice, who had meritoriously served for more than four decades, should not be swept under the carpet.
“The alarm raised by Justice Muhammad and recently, former INEC Chairman, Prof Attahiru Jega, offer Nigerians an explanation into why the electoral and judicial system have become the lost hope of the common man”.
Last Thursday, the Supreme Court endorsed the 6th September verdict of the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC), which dismissed petitions against President Tinubu.
The seven-man panel of the apex court, led by Justice John Okoro, in unanimous judgement, resolved the seven issues for determination in the appeals filed by the PDPD and Atiku; and the Labour Party, and his candidate, Mr. Peter Obi, in favour of President Tinubu .
The legal tango started in March when Atiku, Obi, the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), and two others approached the PEPC to challenge the Independent National Electoral Commission’s INEC’s declaration of Tinubu as the winner of the February 25 presidential poll.
On 1st March, INEC announced that Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress won the presidential contest ahead of 17 other candidates. It declared that Tinubu scored 8,794,726 votes to defeat Atiku, who got 6,984,520 votes, and Obi, who came third with 6,101,533 votes.
President Tinubu hailed the apex court’s verdict, saying the court has done justice to all issues put up for consideration and urged all Nigerians to join hands with him to build the country.
However, the PDP and LP criticised the ruling.
While the PDP said the apex court has disappointed Nigerians, the LP said that Nigeria’s Legislature and Judiciary have been hijacked by the Executive, warning that democracy is under threat and dictatorship looms.
