By Williams Amofokhai
The Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar on Thursday said the judgement delivered by the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) against him is unacceptable and that he is going to the Supreme Court.
The PEPC had on Wednesday dismissed the petitions filed by Atiku, Peter Obi and the APM against the victory of President Bola Tinubu in the last presidential election in Nigeria.
Atiku, at a news conference on Thursday said all through his career as a politician, he had been a fighter, and that he must say that he had found the judiciary as a worthy pillar to rest on in the pursuit of justice.
He said the last presidential election in the country and the way it was managed by the electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission, left behind unenviable precedents, which he believed the courts had a duty to redress.
“Our gains in ensuring transparent elections through the deployment of technology was heavily compromised by INEC in the way it managed the last presidential election, and I am afraid that the judgement of the court as rendered by the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal yesterday, failed to restore confidence in our dreams of free and fair elections devoid of human manipulations.
“Like I did say at the beginning of this legal battle when I instructed my lawyers to file my petition challenging the outcome of the presidential election, my ultimate goal in this pursuit is to ensure that democracy is further strengthened through the principles and processes of fair hearing,” he said.
Atiku added that “I take great pains to tell you that the decision of the court of first instance on this matter utterly falls far short of that expectation.
“I am, therefore, here to tell you that, though the judgment of the court yesterday is respected, it is a judgment that I refuse to accept. I refuse to accept the judgment because I believe that it is bereft of substantial justice. However, the disappointment in the verdict of the court can never destroy my confidence in the judiciary.”
Atiku said he had asked his lawyers to activate his constitutionally guaranteed rights of appeal to the higher court, which, in the instance, is the Supreme Court.
“It is my conviction that the electoral process in Nigeria should be devoid of untidy manipulations and that the outcome of every election should be a perfect reflection of the wishes of the electorate. I believe that such is the only way through which our democracy can have a manifest expression of its true meaning.
“Whether I prevail in this quest or not, the record of my effort in ensuring an order of credible elections in Nigeria shall remain for the future generations to evaluate,” he said.
Atiku urged all his supporters to remain steadfast and to take solace in an immortal lesson he learnt from his leader and mentor, the late Shehu Yar’Adua, that losing a battle is less important than losing the war.
“We might have lost a battle yesterday, but the war is well ahead of us. And I believe that with our hopes in God, we shall win the war of restoring confidence in our electoral system,” he stated.
