The President-elect, Bola Tinubu, has queried the legal competence of the petition the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and its candidate, Atiku Abubakar, filed to nullify his election. Tinubu, in a preliminary objection he entered before the Presidential Election Petition Court, PEPC, in Abuja, described the PDP candidate as a consistent serial loser that has always lost in his bid to lead the country since 1993.
Tinubu said: “The 1st petitioner (Atiku) has been consistently contesting and losing successive presidential elections in Nigeria since 1993, whether at the party primary election level or at the general election; including 1993, when he lost the Social Democratic Party (SDP) primary election to the late Chief M.K.O Abiola; 2007, when he lost the presidential election to the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua; 2011, when he lost the Peoples Democratic Party presidential primary election to President Goodluck Jonathan; 2015, when he lost the APC primary election to President Muhammadu Buhari; 2019, when he lost the presidential election to President Muhammadu Buhari; and now, 2023, when he has again, lost the presidential election to the 2nd respondent (Tinubu).
“It was/is not a surprise and/or not by accident that the electorate rejected the 1st petitioner at the polls of the presidential election held on 25th February, 2023.”
He noted that Atiku was without a stable political platform and has lost majority of his key supporters, in view of his habit of jumping from one political party to another.
Tinubu equally noted that Atiku’s emergence as PDP’s candidate fueled the crisis in the party, resulting in five of its sitting governors resolving to work against him and ensure he lost.
Tinubu said this, in his response to the petition filed by Atiku and the PDP before the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC), in which they are praying to be declared the winner or for the court to order a rerun.
Tinubu’s response was filed on Wednesday night, April 12, by his team of lawyers led by Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN).
He faulted the competence of the petition, describing it as not only frivolous, but an abuse of the process of court, the PDP having earlier filed a suit at the Supreme Court, through some of its governors, demanding the cancellation of the election.
He argued that the PDP and Atiku cannot maintain two cases on the same issue in different courts at the same time.
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