The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Atiku Abubakar, has rejected the judgement of the Supreme Court affirming President Bola Tinubu as the winner of the February presidential election.
Atiku said the judgement of the court left many questions unanswered.
He made this know yesterday I’m Abuja while reacting to the last week Thursday Supreme Court Judgement dismissing his appeal against the earlier judgement of the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC), which in September also dismissed his petition.
The PEPC and the Supreme Court had also dismissed the petition and appeal filed by the Labour Party (LP) candidate, Peter Obi.
Atiku, at the press briefing, claimed that all the evidence on irregularities, violence and manipulations tendered before the Supreme Court ought to have given him justice.
He 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.”
Atiku said he would “leave Nigerians and the world to decide what to make of the Supreme Court’s unfortunate decision,” but that the judgements of the PEPC and Supreme Court had far-reaching implications.
One of the implications, he said, “is the erosion of trust in the electoral system and our democracy.”
According to him, “Nigerians witnessed as the National Assembly changed the electoral law to improve transparency in the process. Of particular importance was the introduction of modern technology to help eliminate the recurring incidents of electoral manipulation, particularly during the collation of results.
“Nigerians and the world also witnessed as the leadership of the INEC, especially its Chairman and National Commissioner for Voter Education reassured Nigerians on national television multiple times that the use of that technology would be mandatory.
“Yet that same INEC undermined the use of that technology during the elections and collation process and declared as winner someone who clearly did not win the Presidential election. They then went further to take sides in the courts in a dogfight to defend their illegality. Who would convince the millions of Nigerians to vote in future elections after they suffered endlessly in queues to register to vote, to collect PVCs and to vote, based on INEC’s assurances only to see their votes stolen and given to someone they did not vote for?”
The PDP candidate said when people lose trust and confidence in elections, democracy is practically on life support.
