The People’s Democratic Party’s presidential candidate in the general election, Atiku Abubakar, has criticized the recent Supreme Court decision to uphold the victory of President Bola Tinubu, describing it as “legitimizing forgery and illegality.”
Atiku made this statement at a press conference on Monday in Abuja.
The Supreme Court had on Thursday, October 26, dismissed the appeal filed by Atiku and the PDP for lack of merit.
The former vice president of Nigeria said that the verdict was not a personal loss, but a Nigerian loss, emphasizing that the higher court ignored the overwhelming evidence presented to it.
- “Someone asked me what I would do if I lost my election petition appeal at the Supreme Court. In response, I said that as long as Nigeria won, the struggle would have been worthwhile, I meant that the bigger loss would not be mine but Nigeria’s if the Supreme Court legitimizes illegality, including forgery, identity theft, and perjury.
- “If the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land, implies by its judgment that crime is good and should be rewarded, then Nigeria has lost, and the country is doomed irrespective of who occupies the Presidential seat. If the Supreme Court decides that the Electoral umpire, INEC, can tell the public one thing and then do something else to reach a corruptly predetermined outcome, then there is no hope for the country’s democracy and electoral politics,” he said.
Speaking further on why he filed a lawsuit against Tinubu on his academic credentials, the former Vice President said,
- “It is not about me, it is about our country, Nigeria, and the future. It is about the kind of society we want to leave for the next generation and what kind of example we want to set for our children.
- It is about the reputation of Nigeria and Nigerians in the eyes of the world.”
Backstory
The Supreme Court last Thursday agreed with the September 6 verdict of the Presidential Election Petition Court, PEPC, on all counts.
The seven-man panel of the apex court led by Justice Inyang Okoro, in a unanimous judgment, resolved the seven issues for determination in the appeals filed by the Presidential Candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in favour of Tinubu.
The court held that Atiku did not prove that the INEC did not substantially comply with provisions of the Electoral Act 2022 in the conduct of the election.
