The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, and his counterpart in the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, have both resolved to approach the Supreme Court of Nigeria after the country’s Presidential Election Tribunal affirmed President Bola Tinubu as winner of the February 25 election.
A five-member panel of the court led by Justice Haruna Tsammani, in a ruling on Wednesday, had thrown out the petitions filed by Atiku and Obi seeking for a nullification of the election and a declaration that Tinubu was not duly elected.
But after the judgement affirming Tinubu’s victory, the two aggrieved candidates both said they would head for the apex court in the land to further pursue their cases.
After the court session which lasted over 12 hours, Atiku’s lead counsel, Chris Uche told journalists that he had already gotten his client’s instruction to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.
“We have our client’s strong instruction to appeal the judgement,” Uche said.
Also addressing journalists shortly after the verdict, Obi’s lawyer, Livy Uzoukwu expressed his principal’s displeasure over the court decision.
“Our clients are dissatisfied with the judgement just delivered. I have the firm instruction of our client to challenge the judgement on appeal,” the lawyer said.
“We have to be very careful in this country, otherwise, electoral jurisprudence will disappear.
“When those who contest elections find it difficult to establish their case, they may resort to other means which might not be quite good.
“Nigerians were witnesses to the electoral robbery that took place on February 25, 2023, which was globally condemned, but the Tribunal, in its wisdom, refused to accept the obvious. What is at stake is democracy, and we will not relent until the people will prevail,” he added.