Mr Timi Frank, a former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress, has urged justices in charge of the Presidential Election Petition tribunal to be resolute and remain faithful to their oath of allegiance by serving justice without fear or favour.
In a statement issued by Mr Frank, he called on the Appeal Court Justices to look at the revelation made by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party won 21 states to redeem the battered image of the judiciary.
Recall that in its response to Atiku and PDP’s joint petition, INEC disclosed that the PDP presidential candidate won 21 states of the federation in the February 25 presidential election.
The 21 states listed by the electoral umpire as won by Atiku and PDP are Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Borno, Delta, Ekiti, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Osun, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe and Zamfara.
Frank said now that INEC has openly admitted on record that Atiku won 21 states instead of the 12 states it earlier credited to him, the Tribunal need not look further but to declare the former Vice President as the authentic winner of the February 25, 2023, presidential election.
“This definitely shows clearly that Atiku’s results were swapped with that of Tinubu to make him win, albeit fraudulently. The justices owe it to themselves, Nigerians and God to declare Atiku the rightful winner of the 2023 presidential election.
“We know the justices of the Appeal Court hearing the petition challenging the declaration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the winner of the presidential election are under tremendous pressure coupled with vile threats and intimidation to maintain an illegal status quo, but they must not succumb because the pressure of God that will be on them should they neglect this material fact would be more than the pressure from men.
“It must never be said that the man who won the least number of states and votes became president as against the man who won majority of states and votes.
“We cannot afford to go back to the era of impunity in this country when the Nigeria Governors’ conducted an election and declared that man who won 15 votes winner rather than the man that won 19 votes.
“The Justices must be resolute and remain faithful to their oath of office and allegiance by carrying out their assignment without fear or favour,” he said.