Presidential Polls: Atiku a serial loser, unstable politician — Tinubu

• says he’s not a product of fraudulent election

From Godwin Tsa, Abuja

The president-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has asked the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) to ignore the petition filed by Atiku Abubakar and his political party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) against his victory describing the former vice president as a serial loser.

While insisting that he was not a product of a corrupt and fraudulent election, Tinubu noted that there was no way the PDP presidential candidate could have won the February 25 election as he has always lost in his previous attempts since 1993.

Besides, he argued that in view of the division in the PDP prior to the election, it would have been a miracle for Atiku and PDP to have come out victorious at the polls.

Tinubu stated all these in the response he filed through his lead counsel, Wole Olanikpekun, SAN, to the petition filed by Atiku and the PDP before the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC), wherein they are praying to be declared the winner or for the court to order a rerun.

According to the President-elect, “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 the 1st petitioner at the polls of the presidential election held on 25th February, 2023,” Tinubu said.

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.

” As between the respondent(Tinubu) and the 1st petitioner(Atiku), while the respondent has always been a most consistent politician, who has not shifted political tendency and alignment, the 1st petitioner has consistently crisscrossed different political parties of Nigeria, including being a member of the PDP before joining the Action Congress in 2007, when he was the Presidential candidate of the party; returned to the PDP thereafter, before joining the 3rd respondent in 2015, where he contested the primary election with President Muhammadu Buhari, before returning to the PDP in 2019 to emerge as its presidential candidate.

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.

“The emergence of the 1st petitioner as the presidential candidate of the 2nd petitioner(PDP), led to irreconcilable hostilities within the ranks of the 2nd petitioner, causing the emergence of a group of Governors known all over the country as the G-5 Governors- Rivers, Oyo, Enugu, Abia and Benue, who opposed the 1st petitioner and vowed to mobilize their people against him.”

He told the tribunal that he was duly elected by a majority of the lawful votes cast at the presidential election held on 25th February, 2023 and scored the highest number of votes as well as one quarter of lawful votes at the election in each of at least two – thirds of all the states in the Federation.

He further submitted that INEC did not suppress votes for him or his party, neither did it inflate his scores as alleged by the petitioners.

Tinubu submitted that a candidate who scored majority of the votes cast at a Presidential Election and secured one-quarter of the votes cast at the election in at least two-thirds of all the States in the Federation, need NOT obtained twenty-five percent of the votes cast in the FCT to be entitled to be declared winner of the election.
The president-elect also 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.