Atiku’s plea, according to the President-elect, was not only frivolous but also an abuse of the legal system.
According to the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, has always lost since 1993.
Asserting that it would have taken a miracle for the PDP and its candidate to win in light of the crises roiling the party prior to and throughout the polls, Tinubu urged Atiku to not consider his defeat in the most recent election as unusual.
These comments were made by the President-elect in response to a petition Atiku and the PDP filed with the Presidential Election Petition Court, asking for their victory to be recognized or for the court to order a new election.
He stated that due to Atiku’s propensity to switch political parties, he lacks a permanent political platform and has lost the majority of his most important followers.
In addition, Tinubu claimed that the PDP’s instability was exacerbated by Atiku’s selection as its candidate, which led to five of the party’s current governors deciding to work against him and assure his defeat.
His legal team, led by Wole Olanipekun, filed the President-response. Elect’s
The petition was deemed frivolous and a misuse of the legal system by the President-Elect.
He claimed that because the PDP had previously requested the cancellation of the election through some of its governors in a lawsuit filed with the Supreme Court, it was not possible to pursue two petitions involving the same matter concurrently in two distinct courts.
He said that on February 28, the PDP, through its governors in the states of Adamawa, Akwa-Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo, and Sokoto, filed a lawsuit before the Supreme Court, requesting, among other things, the cancellation of the presidential election scheduled for February 25.
Furthermore, he questioned the petition’s legitimacy by pointing out that Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) and Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) were left out of it, despite the fact that the petitioners were questioning the outcomes from the states won by the LP and NNPP.
The petitioners expressed their displeasure with the results of the elections in the states of Abia, Anambra, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Enugu, Imo, Kano, Plateau, and Lagos. In none of these states, Tinubu was recognized as the election’s overall victor.
In response, it was said that Tinubu could not be forced to defend a crime purportedly committed in any of the aforementioned states.
The response from Tinubu’s team ended with a query on Atiku’s petition on the result of elections in all the states where he, Obi won the election, including but not limited to Adamawa, Bauchi, Akwa-Ibom, Bayelsa, Gombe, Yobe, Sokoto, Osun, Kebbi and Katsina states, without making themselves co-respondents to the petition; whereas, under Section 133(2) of the Electoral Act, 2022, a party whose election is being challenged shall be made a respondent.”
