S’Court Judgement: “Nigeria is doomed” – Atiku

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Nigeria’s former Vice President and Presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, in the 2023 presidential election, Atiku Abubakar has reacted to the Supreme Court’s judgement which affirmed President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the winner of the 2023 election, leaves many questions unanswered.

According to the former Vice President who addressed a press conference on national issues in Abuja on Monday, the Supreme Court’s judgement leaves many questions unanswered as he declared that Nigeria is doomed.

The former vice president said that for a country whose judiciary and other vital arms of government have been hijacked by the executive, there is no room for improvement.

He said, “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.

Meanwhile, the National Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, Amb Umar Illiya Damagun, Monday, said the party was disappointed with the judgment of the Supreme Court with respect to its Presidential petition but it would not be deterred.

The Party chairman was speaking at a press conference at the party’s National Secretariat, in Abuja, when he made the statetement.

Damagun said, “We may be disappointed but we are not deterred because we know what is on the ground, we know what happened.

“Everyone is so sad in this country. There was a verdict but everywhere is calm no celebration. Mine is to welcome all of us and the leader of our party.