Election
PEPT Judgement: Emulate Jonathan’s doctrine – Murray-Bruce Urges Atiku, Obi
Senator Ben Murray-Bruce has urged Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) to emulate the doctrine of former president Goodluck Jonathan and accept the Judgement of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT).
Murray-Bruce’s comment comes on the heels of Tinubu’s triumph at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal on Wednesday.
Atiku and Peter Obi are contesting the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) announcement of Bola Tinubu as the victor of the 2023 presidential election.
However, they suffered a severe blow in their court battle to oust Tinubu as Nigeria’s elected president on Wednesday.
Both Atiku and Obi are now on their way to the Supreme Court, where the dispute will be resolved, but Ben Murray-Bruce believes they should not have begun the legal battle at all.
According to him, the politicians could have saved themselves the pain by following in the doctrine of former President Goodluck Jonathan, who took up the phone and congratulated Muhammadu Buhari even before the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, released the final results in 2015.
According to Bruce, it is an exercise in futility to further waste time and resources once the electoral umpire has declared the winner of an election.
In a post on his verified Twitter handle, he wrote “We must follow the Jonathan doctrine and accept the people’s verdict in the interest of democracy and the nation,”
“Our elections don’t have to end in court,” he insisted.
The former PDP senator, urged the aggrieved politicians to accept the Tribunal verdict and place national interest above self-interest.
“Bola Ahmed Tinubu, @officialABAT, is the duly elected and undisputed President of Nigeria, @NGRPresident,” he said, adding that there should be no further doubts and dispute after the judgement.
