Peter Obi, the Labour Party’s candidate for president, has expressed confidence in the legal system to render the appropriate decision in the matter before the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal where he is contesting the outcome of the just ended presidential election on February 25.
During a live appearance on Thursday morning’s episode of Sunrise Daily on Channels Television, Obi emphasized his faith in the legal system.
The LP candidate stated that he had no cause to have any doubts about the court and that politicians were attempting to influence it through “transactions” despite Nigeria having one of the best judiciaries in the world.
Recall that INEC had come under fire for its failure to upload the results of the presidential election from all polling units across the federation to its Results Viewing Portal on election day.
Ignoring the agitation of the opposition parties, INEC in the early hours of Wednesday, March 1, 2023, declared Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, President-elect and winner of the election. Tinubu polled about 8.8 million votes ahead of his rivals in the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, who polled 6.9 million votes and Obi himself, who polled 6.1 million votes.
Dissatisfied with the election results and declaration, the Labour Party had approached the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal to grant it permission to inspect the election materials used by the commission during the February 25 polls, including the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, which was the major technology deployed during the polls to enhance a free and free process.
The chairman of the electoral body, Mahmood Yakubu, while receiving lawyers from the Labour Party on Monday assured them that the commission had nothing to hide and pledged to provide all documents requested to aid the ongoing suit.
When asked however, if his trust in the electoral body had been rekindled with the pledge of the INEC chairman Obi said, “They are now dealing with the lawyers, I don’t go to INEC, I’m not part of it. Well, I believe the lawyers are satisfied and if they are, it’s no longer about me trusting INEC, there’s now something between the two of us. So if our lawyers trust them I’m fine with that.”
Expressing confidence in the judiciary Obi said, “I am confident in the judiciary. I am because I have stayed in court for three years when people said it’s impossible for you to become a governor through the court and I became the first. Remember I was impeached and again the court brought me back. And I went for an interpretation where I said ‘my tenure is not complete’ . People said it’s impossible because somebody else had been elected but I changed it.
“So having gone through courts, several of them, I have not had any course to doubt the court.
“I believe Nigeria has one of the best judiciary globally, but it is we, politicians, because of our transactional nature, that are trying to ensure that everywhere is corrupted and that I wish can start reversing, even with this case. They are seeing globally what is happening, Africans are surprised that the giant of Africa can no longer deliver. Even Ghana will soon have elections and they will do all without the BVAS and it will go smoothly.
“I don’t go anywhere referring to how others were treated. Irrespective of their controversial judgments recently (referring to the Supreme Court), I have confidence that they know the country is collapsing, they know they have to help to build a better place for their children.”
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