President-elect Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has again justified the loss of the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, at the 2023 presidential election, describing the former nation’s number two man as a serial loser and an unstable politician.
The former Lagos state governor argued Thursday that Atiku had since 1993, consistently contested and lost elections both at the primary and general elections.
Tinubu, who stood for the election and won on the All Progressives Congress (APC) platform, traced the history of Atiku’s losses in the presidential election to 1993 when he reportedly lost the Social Democratic Party (SDP) primary election to the late Chief M.K.O Abiola; and in 2007 presidential election to the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.
Other elections Tinubu said Atiku lost were in 2011, when he failed to defeat President Goodluck Jonathan at the PDP primary; in 2015 when he lost the APC primary election to President Muhammadu Buhari; in 2019 to Buhari again; and in 2023 when he lost the presidential election to him.
Tinubu’s positions were contained in his defence to the petition filed against him by Atiku and PDP to challenge his declaration as Nigeria’s President-elect by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
In the defence filed by Chief Wole Oladapo Olanipekun, SAN, along with 34 other SANs, Tinubu asserted that it was not a surprise or by accident that the electorate rejected the 1st petitioner (Atiku) at the polls of the presidential election held on 25th February, 2023.
At the presidential election conducted by INEC (1st respondent) on 25th February, 2023, Tinubu claimed that having polled 8,794,726 votes across Nigeria (which was the highest amongst the 18 candidates at the election), and also satisfied all other requirements, he was validly returned as President-elect of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Justifying his own victory, Tinubu said he has always been “a most consistent politician, who has not shifted political tendency and alignment while, the 1st petitioner (Atiku), has consistently crisscrossed different political parties of Nigeria, including being a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (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 APC 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 claimed that while he had always carried his supporters along and increased his political followership, Atiku lost most of his followers in the process of moving from one political party to the other.
In the 2023 general elections, the President-elect alleged that the emergence of Atiku as the presidential candidate of the 2nd petitioner (PDP) led to irreconcilable hostilities within the ranks of the party.
This, he said, caused 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 mobilise their people against him.
He said: “Atiku as the 1st petitioner, could not even campaign or canvass for votes in some of the States controlled by the 2nd petitioner, including Rivers and Oyo States where the 2nd respondent (Tinubu) defeated the 1st petitioner (Atiku) by a wide margin.
“The 2nd petitioner (PDP) does not have any right whatsoever or howsoever to be returned as duly elected at the election held on 25th February, 2023, having lost to and/or been beaten/ defeated by the respondent.
“The 1st petitioner, having lost at the election of 25th February, 2023, has no right to and cannot be declared as the winner of the election under the Nigerian laws.”
He sought to tender newspaper publications and social media contents in respect of the hottest opposition to Atiku within PDP.
Besides, Tinubu explained that while Atiku contested the presidential election of 2019 with President Buhari under a fairly cohesive PDP with Peter Obi as his running mate and Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso as one of his supporters, the same Obi broke away from the PDP to join the Labour Party to contest the presidential election , while Kwankwaso also broke away from PDP to contest the presidential election on the ticket of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP).
He said while Obi polled a total of 6,101,533 votes, Kwankwaso polled 1,496,687 votes.
“Before the balkanisation of the 2nd petitioner, (PDP) the South-Eastern States of Enugu, Abia, Imo, Ebonyi and Anambra used to be controlled by PDP but at the presidential election of 25th February, 2023, they all went the way of Labour Party.
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“At a Press Conference addressed by the 1st petitioner (Atiku) on or about 2nd March, 2023, he admitted the negative impact of the balkanisation of the 2nd petitioner on the fortune of his election, particularly, the exit of Peter Gregory Obi from the party,” he said.
Tinubu pleaded the national newspapers that publicized the 1st petitioner’s Press Conference, including the Punch of 3rd March, 2023, where the 1st petitioner was reported to have lamented thus:
“It is a fact that Peter Obi took our votes from the South-East and South-South, but that wouldn’t make him the President. You need votes from everywhere.”
“As between the 2nd petitioner (PDP) and the 3rd respondent, (APC) while the 3rd respondent is a national party, popular amongst Nigerians, cutting across all divides, the 2nd petitioner has, in the past years, been engrossed in intra-party irreconcilable feuds and infighting, both in relation to its national offices and officers, as well as the Convention which produced the 1st petitioner (Atiku) as its presidential candidate.
“Presently and from 2015 till date, the 3rd respondent APC, has been the political party in power in Nigeria; it presently has the President of the country, 20 State Governors, 64 Senators, 217 members of the House of Representatives and about 600 members of the States’ Houses of Assembly, nationwide; while the 2nd petitioner has just 14 State Governors, 39 Senators and 111 Members of the House of Representatives.
“In the election that held on 25th February, 2023 and 18th March, 2023, while the 3rd respondent produced 15 Governors, as against 9 of the 2nd petitioner, it also produced 64 Senators, as against 33 produced by the 2nd petitioner, and 217 Representatives, as against 104 produced by the 2nd petitioner’s 20,” added the president-elect.
He promised to lead evidence to prove and demonstrate that from 1999 till date, it had been the consistent pattern that the political party who controlled/controls most of the States as well as the National and State Assemblies produced/produce the President, and that the election of 25th February, 2023 was no exception.
“This is asides the misfortune and calamities that have befallen the 2nd petitioner in recent years, even till after the election, where they had to sack their National Chairman. The respondent shall found and rely on documents and newspaper reports of the various squabbles in the 2nd petitioner.
“The petitioners complained about outcome of the election in Abia, Anambra, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Enugu, Imo, Kano, Plateau and Lagos States, the 2nd respondent (Tinubu) was not declared as the overall winner in any of the States aforementioned.
“Mr. Peter Gregory Obi of the Labour Party was declared the overall winner of the election in Abia, Anambra, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Enugu, Imo, Plateau and Lagos States, while Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria People’s Party was declared winner of the election in Kano State.
“None of Labour Party, Peter Gregory Obi, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, and New Nigeria People’s Party, has been joined as a party to this petition. The respondent cannot be made willy-nilly to defend any infraction allegedly committed in any of the States aforementioned.
“The petitioners are querying the result of elections in all the States where they won the election, including but not limited to Adamawa, Bauchi, Akwa-Ibom, Bayelsa, Gombe, Yobe, Sokoto, Osun, Kebbi and Katsina States, without making themselves co-respondents to the petition; whereas, under section 133(2) of the Electoral Act, 2022, a party whose election is being challenged shall be made a respondent,” he further submitted.
Tinubu told the tribunal that the petition brought against him by Atiku and PDP, is a gross abuse of court process.
He added that the petitioners lacked the right to present this petition, having peremptorily filed an Originating Summons at the Supreme Court on 28th February, 2023, praying the Apex Court to assume original jurisdiction on the same subject of their petition, and asking the court to nullify the entire presidential election.
The former governor, therefore, asked that the petition be dismissed for lacking in merit, substance, bona fide, sincerity and for also being frivolous, vexatious, highly misconceived, disclosing no reasonable cause of action and for constituting a crass abuse of the judicial process.
INEC
Also in its defence, INEC told the tribunal that a candidate does not need to secure 25% of votes in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to win a presidential election in the country.
It also said the PDP presidential candidate did not meet the constitutional requirements to be declared winner of the February 25 election, just as it described Obi’s petition as incompetent.
To this end, the electoral body insisted Tinubu validly won the poll, saying the APC candidate met all the necessary legal requirements to merit victory at the end of the poll.
It submitted that Tinubu scored 25 per cent of the valid votes cast in 29 states of the Federation, adding that by the margin of the lead, the commission didn’t act hastily , as alleged by Atiku and the PDP in declaring the APC candidate winner.
It listed the 29 states Tinubu scored 25 per cent of the valid votes cast as Ekiti, Kwara, Osun, Ondo, Ogun, Oyo, Yobe, Lagos, Gombe, Adamawa, Katsina, Jigawa, Nasarawa, Niger, Benue, Akwa Ibom, Edo, Kogi, Bauchi, Plateau, Bayelsa, Kaduna, Kebbi, Kano, Zamfara, Sokoto, Taraba, Borno and Rivers.
According to the commission, the FCT, beyond being the nation’s capital city, “has no special constitutional status over and above the other 36 states of the Federation” to require a candidate in the presidential election to obtain at least 25 per cent of the votes cast in the FCT before being declared winner of the presidential election.
INEC therefore asked the court to dismiss Atiku’s petition for lacking in substance.
Atiku on $460,000 forfeiture
Meanwhile, former Vice President Atiku has asked Tinubu to come clean on the $460,000 forfeiture in the United States of America.
The PDP candidate spoke through his Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu.
The APC, had through its lead counsel, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, faulted Obi’s claim on Tinubu’s forfeiture of the said sum over drug allegation, that it was enough to disqualify him from contesting the poll.
Faulting the position in its defence at the tribunal, the APC had reportedly said: “The said decision is not against the 2nd Respondent (Tinubu) but against the funds in the various accounts opened in the name of Bola Tinubu with First Heritage Bank and City Bank N.A.
“The compromise terms that led to the forfeiture were preceded by express admission on record that the 2nd Respondent (Tinubu) did not admit the commission of any drug, drug-related or illicit conduct of dishonesty or fraud that fits into any of the grounds of disqualification to contest for the office of president of Nigeria at the February 25, 2023 general election.”
Atiku faults APC’s claim
Replying in a statement Thursday, Atiku said: “Festus Keyamo had gone on national television to say that Tinubu’s forfeiture of $460,000 was based on tax obligations. At least they have now finally admitted that the forfeiture was in relation to a drug trafficking case even though Tinubu did not admit guilt.
“But what has been established is that Justice John Nordberg ordered on October 4, 1993, that the funds in the amount of $460,000 held in First Heritage Bank in the name of Bola Tinubu represent the proceeds of narcotics trafficking or were involved in financial transactions in violation of 18 U.S. 1956 and 1957.”
“Tinubu should know that he cannot outrun his past. He was investigated in relation to heroin trafficking. He had millions of dollars in his account while on a salary of $2, 500 monthly, and he forfeited part of it to escape jail. These are the facts. Elections are over, and he should stop lying to Nigerians,” the statement further added.