The presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar said the position of the Supreme Court, affirming President Bola Tinubu as the winner of the 2023 election, leaves many questions unanswered.

Atiku stated this while addressing a press conference on national issues in Abuja on Monday.

He stated, “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.

“Even the rebuke by retired Justice Musa Dattijo Muhammad is a confirmation from within the apex court that all is not well with the Supreme Court. The court and indeed the judiciary must never lend itself to politicization as it is currently the norm with nearly every institution in Nigeria.

“By the way, the strong rebuke of the apex court by the revered Justice, who had meritoriously served for more than four decades, should not be swept under the carpet.

“The alarm raised by Justice Muhammad and recently, former INEC Chairman, Prof Attahiru Jega, offer Nigerians an explanation into why the electoral and judicial system have become the lost hope of the common man.”

Recall that the Supreme Court, on Thursday, agreed with the September 6 verdict of the Presidential Election Petition Court, PEPC, on all counts. 

The seven-man panel of the apex court led by Justice Inyang Okoro, in unanimous judgment, resolved the seven issues for determination in the appeals filed by the Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar; and his Labour Party, LP, counterpart, Mr. Peter Obi, in favour of Tinubu .

The legal tango started in March when Atiku, Obi, the Allied Peoples Movement, APM, and two others approached the PEPC to challenge the Independent National Electoral Commission’s INEC’s declaration of Tinubu as the winner of the February 25 presidential poll.

The INEC had, on March 1, announced that Tinubu of the APC won the presidential contest ahead of 17 other candidates. It declared that Tinubu scored 8,794,726 votes to defeat Atiku Abubakar, who got 6,984,520 votes, and Mr. Peter Obi, who came third with 6,101,533 votes.

President Tinubu hailed the apex court’s verdict, saying the court has done justice to all issues put up for consideration and urged all Nigerians to join hands with him to build the country.

However, the PDP and LP criticised the ruling.

While the PDP said the apex court has disappointed Nigerians, the LP said that Nigeria’s Legislature and Judiciary have been hijacked by the Executive, warning that democracy is under threat and dictatorship looms.