The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr Atiku Abubakar, has advised future political aspirants not to bother taking their grievances to court if they are robbed of victory during any election.
He said this during a press conference on Monday following the controversial Supreme Court ruling that affirmed President Bola Tinubu’s disputed victory.
Though, Atiku’s attack on the judiciary is coming after the Supreme Court rejected his motion to tender fresh evidence he obtained from Chicago State University which indicted President Bola Tinubu for forgery.
The fresh evidence from the US institution showed that President Bola Tinubu forged CSU certificate he presented to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), in the last election.
The former Vice President during the press conference noted that the decision of the PEPC and Supreme Court will however, have very far-reaching grave implications on Nigeria.
Atiku said, “I leave Nigerians and the world to decide what to make of the Supreme Court’s unfortunate decision. But here’s my take. The judgments of the PEPC and the Supreme Court have very far-reaching grave implications, including the following:
“One is the erosion of trust in the electoral system and our democracy. Nigerians witnessed as the National Assembly changed the electoral law to improve transparency in the process. Of particular importance was the introduction of modern technology to help eliminate the recurring incidents of electoral manipulation, particularly during the collation of results. Nigerians and the world also witnessed as the leadership of the INEC, especially its Chairman and National Commissioner for Voter Education reassured Nigerians on national television multiple times that the use of that technology would be mandatory.
“Yet that same INEC undermined the use of that technology during the elections and collation process and declared as winner someone who clearly did not win the Presidential election. They then went further to take sides in the courts in a dogfight to defend their illegality. Who would convince the millions of Nigerians to vote in future elections after they suffered endlessly on queues to register to vote, to collect PVCs and to vote, based on INEC’s assurances only to see their votes stolen and given to someone they did not vote for?
“When people lose trust and confidence in elections, democracy is practically on life support. And by affirming and legitimizing the continued lack of transparency in our electoral system the courts are continuing to usurp the rights of voters to elect their leaders. The other grave implication is that contestants in Nigeria’s elections should do whatever is necessary to be declared the winner. That includes identity theft, impersonation, forging of educational and other documents, perjury, and violence.
“And, as they do so, they should ignore whatever the law says and whatever assurances from the leadership of the electoral umpire about what the law says and what they would do in compliance. And they would do so knowing that our courts would approve of their behaviour or at best pretend not to take any notice of it. The third is that if you are robbed of victory, do not bother going to court for redress because your glaring evidence of the robbery will be ignored in favour of the mandate bandit.”