Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has said the country is the biggest loser in the Supreme Court judgment, affirming President Bola Tinubu as winner of the February 25 presidential poll.
Atiku, who was Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP), candidate in the contest, stated this, on Monday, at a press briefing, in Abuja, where he reacted to the Supreme Court judgment. The former vice president stated that the outcome of the electoral dispute, not withstanding, he won’t go away.
The PDP candidate had challenged the declaration of President Tinubu by the Independent National Electoral Commission ( INEC) as winner of the last presidential poll. However, he lost at both the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) and the Supreme Court.
Nevertheless, Atiku said history will vindicate him for his role in challenging the outcome of the last presidential poll.
The opposition leader, who recounted his efforts to prove his case before the Court, said the struggle was about the country and not about himself.
According to him, “If the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land, implies by its judgment that crime is good and should be rewarded, then Nigeria has lost and the country is doomed irrespective of who occupies the Presidential seat. If the Supreme Court decides that the Electoral umpire, INEC, can tell the public one thing and then do something else in order to reach a corruptly predetermined outcome, then there is really no hope for the country’s democracy and electoral politics.
“Obviously, the consequences of those decisions for the country will not end at the expiration of the current government. They will last for decades. I am absolutely sure that history will vindicate me. We now know what the Supreme Court has decided.”
He added that “in fact, a simple check of Tinubu’s past records in its possession would have shown INEC that Tinubu broke the law and should not have been allowed to contest the election. 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, while stating that his work and that of the PDP , as far as this phase is concerned, was done, said he was not going away. He vowed to continue the struggle to deepen the country’s democracy and rule of law.
Credit: Daily Sun