Presidential Appeal: PDP expresses dissatisfaction over Supreme Court ruling

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says it is disappointed with the judgment of the Supreme Court affirming President Bola Tinubu as winner of the Feb. 25, 2023, Presidential election, as declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The PDP expressed its position in a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, in Abuja on Thursday, in reaction to the court judgment on the appeal petition filed by the party and its Presidential Candidate, Atiku Abubakar, on the election. Ologunagba said that the PDP and indeed majority of Nigerians were alarmed, disappointed and gravely concerned with the reasoning of the Supreme Court. He said that the PDP believed the judgment was against the express provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended); the Electoral Act, 2022; and the Guideline and Regulation issued by INEC under which the election was conducted. “The PDP asserts that it is indeed a sad commentary for our democracy that the Supreme Court failed to uphold the provisions of the law. “Instead, it trashed the expectation of majority of Nigerians who looked up to it as a temple of impartiality to deliver substantial justice in the matter having regards to the laws and facts of the case. “Nigerians earnestly expected the Supreme Court to uphold and defend the clear provisions of the 1999 Constitution in terms of qualification and minimum requirement for a winner to be declared in a Presidential election in Nigeria. “This is especially with regards to the required statutory 25 per cent of votes in the FCT as well as issues of violation of electoral Rules and Guidelines, brazen manipulations and alterations of election results by the All Progressives Congress (APC),” Ologunagba said. He said that Nigerians were still at a loss as to how the Supreme Court condoned the “serious issues of forgery, falsehood and perjury on the altar of technicalities,” he said. Ologunagba said that the general gloom, melancholy and sense of despondency across the country upon the delivery of the judgment was an ominous sign of eerie situation which portend consequences because of the disappointment embedded in the judgment. “This judgment by the Supreme Court has evidently shaken the confidence of Nigerians in the judiciary, especially the Supreme Court as the last hope of the common man,” he stated. Ologunagba however declared that the PDP remained undeterred. He charged Nigerians not to be discouraged or allow the judgment to detract from their collective quest for the entrenchment of a credible electoral system that could guarantee a government that derive its legitimacy from the people.