Atiku And Obi Declare Victory And Prepare For Legal Fireworks
The countdown to President Muhammadu Buhari’s May 29 handover to President-elect Bola Tinubu may be equally as exciting as the campaigns leading up to the February 25 presidential election because Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) yesterday rejected Tinubu’s offer of reconciliation and vowed to challenge his victory in court.
Both Atiku and Obi maintained they were the election’s victors in separate statements to the media.
The presidential election gave our country the best chance to restart, according to Atiku. The 2022 Electoral Act’s legislative framework and the BVAS technology gave us an advantage. A plus was the excitement of Nigerians, who showed up in big numbers.
“Unfortunately, the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) conduct, which fell short of expectations, destroyed the ambitions and aspirations of Nigerians who overcame all obstacles to go and cast their ballots on Saturday. Neither a free nor a fair election was held. According to early evaluations, these elections were the worst run since democracy was restored.
“This election was marred by manipulation and fraud on a scale never before seen in the history of our country. Given the numerous complaints of irregularities, including bypassing BVAS, failing to upload to the IReV, and unprecedented cancellations and disenfranchisements of millions of voters in violation of the Electoral Act and the Commission’s own guidelines, I still don’t understand why the electoral umpire was in such a rush to finish collating the results and announce them. Indeed, democracy had been raped.
“After speaking with party leaders and Nigerians from many walks of life, I’ve come to the opinion that the election’s procedures and results were seriously defective in every relevant way, and as such, they ought to be challenged. Both local and foreign witnesses have confirmed this. I really hope that President Buhari’s stated legacy was not this.
“My fight to right Saturday’s wrongs is not about me. My fight to strengthen democracy and improve the lives of our people is continuing. It concerns the young of Nigeria and their future.
“I really hope that the court will turn things around this time and live up to society’s expectations of it as its final chance. In the end, the legitimacy of our elections and democratic procedures matters more than who wins.
For Obi, despite INEC’s guarantees, the Commission let political leaders to let down young people who trusted them, which was the impetus for his choice to challenge the election’s results in front of the Presidential Election Tribunal.
“The election was held and the results were released as planned,” he stated. As we were promised a free, transparent, credible, and fair election free of voter intimidation and suppression, as well as a late start to voting in certain particular states, this is a clear divergence from the electoral laws and principles.
