The 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, has rejected the ruling of the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) that upheld the election of President Bola Tinubu.
On Wednesday, the tribunal affirmed the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the February 25, 2023, presidential election as the rightful winner of the election.
The tribunal held that the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, did not successfully prove his petition seeking to remove Tinubu from office.
The court also struck out the petition filed by LP and Obi for lack of merit while ruling on whether the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was right to return Tinubu as duly elected by a majority of lawful votes cast.
Speaking through his team of lawyers led by Dr Livy Uzoukwu (SAN) after the court sitting on Wednesday night, Obi vowed to appeal the judgement of the tribunal.
The former Governor of Anambra warned that if care is not taken, the electoral jurisprudence would disappear in the country, stressing that the court process should be seamless.
He stressed that petitioners who are dissatisfied with the outcome of an election may resort to self-help if they continue to find it very difficult to establish their case owing to obstacles from government institutions like INEC.
He said: “If we are not careful, our electoral jurisprudence will eventually disappear. I am saying this with every amount of sincerity because when the litigant who contested the election continue to find it very difficult to establish their case due to obstacles on the way, starting with INEC, certainly they may resort to some other means of trying to get justice, which may not be lawful.”
The LP flagbearer also commended the Court of Appeal for introducing live-streaming of the judgement to guarantee transparency and accountability.
“Also, I commend the Court of Appeal for introducing live streaming. You may recall that we applied to the court to have a live streaming of all the proceedings, but the court, in its wisdom, did not grant the application.
“But now, in the end, they saw the wisdom in it and the need to guarantee transparency, hence, live streaming of the judgement.
“Certainly, it would have been better if it was live streaming of the entire proceedings so that the public would have the chance to watch and be able to relate properly with the judgement.
“So, I will hope and pray that this time, it will be continuous, starting from the beginning of a case.
“That is the only way that you can guarantee transparency because when something is open, Nigerians will see things for themselves, and they will make up their minds, one way or the other,” he added.
