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The fallout of the Supreme Court ruling on the 2023 Presidential Election is far from over as some of the gladiators have refused to sheathe their swords.
A few days after the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar held a Press Conference to ‘reject’ the judgement of the Supreme Court, his Labour Party counterpart, Peter Gregory Obi has followed suit.
Speaking at the Press Conference on Monday, he said his dream for a new Nigeria has not ended with the October 26, 2023 verdict of the Supreme Court.
Obi, who faulted the judgement of the apex court bemoaned what he termed as the exhibition of “a disturbing aversion to public opinion”, however, agreed that the end has come to the legal battle of the last election.
“Setting legal issues aside, the Supreme Court exhibited a disturbing aversion to public opinion just as it abandoned its responsibility as a court of law and policy. It is, therefore, with great dismay that I observe that the Court’s decision contradicts the overwhelming evidence of election rigging, false claim of a technical glitch, substantial non-compliance with rules set by INEC itself as well as matters of perjury, identity theft, and forgery that have been brought to light in the course of this election matter.
These were hefty allegations that should not be treated with levity. More appalling, the Supreme Court judgment willfully condoned breaches of the Constitution relative to established qualifications and parameters for candidates in presidential elections. With this counter-intuitive judgment, the Supreme Court has transferred a heavy moral burden from the courtrooms to our national conscience. Our young democracy is ultimately the main victim and casualty of the courtroom drama.
Without equivocation, this judgment amounts to a total breach of the confidence the Nigerian people have in our judiciary. To that extent, it is a show of unreasonable force against the very Nigerian people from whom the power of the Constitution derives.
This Supreme Court ruling may represent the state of the law in 2023 but not the present demand for substantive justice. The judgment mixed principles and precepts. Indeed, the rationale and premise of the Supreme Court judgment, have become clearer in the light of the deep revealing and troubling valedictory remarks by Hon. Justice Musa Dattijo Muhammad, (JSC) on Friday 27th October 2023” he said.
Reacting, the Presidency on Monday fired back at Obi, saying that the businessman once benefited from judicial pronouncements when he reclaimed his mandate as governor of Anambra State in 2007 but he now castigates the same when the Supreme Court ruled in the favour of President Bola Tinubu on October 26, 2023.
The Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, made this known in a statement titled “Peter Obi Should Find Better Vocation Instead Of Casting Aspersions On The Judiciary” hours after Obi faulted the Supreme Court verdict which affirmed the electoral victory of Tinubu, the then candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the February 25, 2023 poll.
Labour Party Presidential candidate in the last election, Mr. Peter Obi, addressed a press conference, just like Atiku Abubakar, where he cast aspersions on the Supreme Court and the Independent National Electoral Commission for not declaring him the winner of the February 25, 2023 election.
“We are at a loss as to how the copycat Obi and his faction of Labour Party convinced themselves they won an election in which they came a distant third.
The grand delusion that made Mr. Obi believe he could have won a national election where he ran the most hateful, divisive and polarising campaign that pitched Christians against Muslims and one ethnic group against the other in a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society like Nigeria should be a matter for deeper examination.
At the press conference where he tried, in vain, to gaslight Nigerians with false claims and innuendos, Mr Obi contradicted himself. Here was a beneficiary of judicial pronouncements in the past now castigating the same court because its judgment did not go his way.
Mr. Obi claimed the Supreme Court justices didn’t consider public opinion in delivering what has been applauded as a most profound judgement in an election appeal where the Labour Party candidate presented the most watery and unreasonable petition before any court in the history of electoral cases in Nigeria.
He made false allegations of rigging and other electoral malpractices yet could not produce any evidence to back up his claims at both the court of first instance and at the apex court. In a failed effort to mobilise and retain the support of his supporters, Obi gave them a forlorn hope that he won the election and would prove it before the courts. Throughout the trial, his lawyers didn’t present any alternative results different from the results INEC uploaded on the IReV portal and the ones signed by all party agents from the 176,000 polling units.
We wonder how the Labour Party candidate expected the courts to do justice on the basis of rumours, lies and false narratives by sponsored partisans and fanatical members of his Obidient Movement.
We expected the Labour Party candidate to know that the Supreme Court or any other court does not give judgment based on public opinion and mob sentiments. Judicial pronouncements are based on evidence, precedents and the rule of law.
READ ALSO: Supreme Court Judgment: Atiku Roars, APC, Presidency Fire Back
Having admitted that the Supreme Court ruling brought an end to litigation and any challenge to the bonafide of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the validly elected leader of Nigeria and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Obi should have congratulated President Tinubu for his victory and pledge his support, in the spirit of statesmanship.
But instead, he brought up extraneous matters that he thought the apex court should have considered to declare him the winner. In our view, the drowning Obi, just like Atiku, was merely attempting to hold on to a straw in raking up new allegations, which exist only in his imagination and that of his hordes of supporters.
Our admonition to Mr. Peter Obi is to find another worthwhile vocation to engage his time henceforth, having been rejected by majority of Nigerians who didn’t consider him qualified to lead our country.
Nigerians rejected Peter Obi and his demagoguery at the poll because he posed present and future danger to the peace, progress and stability of our country.
Obi’s antecedents as Governor of Anambra for eight years didn’t inspire any confidence as someone capable of running a country like Nigeria. No tangible records of achievement in the state he governed recommended him for the Presidency of Nigeria.
If Mr. Peter Obi truly believes in Nigeria, the time to prove it is now when all men and women of goodwill are rallying support for President Tinubu in his determination to lead a new era of prosperity, inclusive governance and economic growth in Nigeria.
Finally, we welcome Obi and his party to play the role of the opposition and start preparing for another shot at the presidency in 2027.
We hope by then he will campaign on issues and not whip up religious and ethnic sentiments as he did in the last campaign” the statement said.
