Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate for the February 25, 2023 election, believes the Supreme Court’s October 26, 2023 ruling, while definitive, left much to be desired.
The former Vice President made the remarks during a news conference in the nation’s capital, Abuja, on Monday.
He argued that the All Progressives Congress (APC) nominee at the time, Bola Tinubu, was ineligible to run in the February 2023 presidential election.
He accused the Supreme Court and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of facilitating illegality, identity theft, impersonation, certificate fabrication, and perjury.
When people lose faith in the election process, democracy, according to Atiku, is on life support.
In its first reaction to the Supreme Court’s decision, the party stated that the court had failed Nigerians by upholding Tinubu as the country’s President.
Atiku and his Labour Party (LP) opponent, Peter Obi, have taken Tinubu’s election triumph to the Supreme Court.
Not satisfied with the decision of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) earlier in September, Atiku and Obi petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn Tinubu’s election on the grounds of double nomination, alleged certificate forgery, non-transmission of results electronically, and 25% votes cast in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), among other things.
Last Thursday, however, an apex court panel led by Justice John Okoro dismissed all of Atiku and Obi’s pleas for lack of merit. Tinubu’s electoral victory was then affirmed by the panel.