PRESIDENTIAL candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) at the February 23 election, Atiku Abubakar, has finally spoken out after the dismissal of his petition challenging the re-election of Muhammadu Buhari.
The Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal on 11 September upheld the victory of Buhari, citing the petitioner’s failure to satisfactorily prove all the allegations brought before it.
According to figures declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Atiku lost to Buhari who polled a total of 15,191,847 votes compared to PDP’s 11,262,978 votes.
In a statement shared on Friday, Atiku said he has decided to seek a remedy in the judicial system in order to ensure “that the votes of Nigerians count and are counted”.
He stated that “those who do not want this as Nigeria’s reality, will use every trick in the book to undermine, discourage, misinform and mislead, but with God’s help and the support of Nigerians, we will ensure that Nigeria makes a course correction away from tyranny and towards democracy”.
The former Vice President urged his supporters to continue to back his ambition, adding that “even if there is little or nothing you can do to ensure that justice is done in Nigeria, just believe that it will happen.”
He further urged Nigerians to pursue “this just cause all the way, so that our judiciary are not afraid to do their jobs and have to be wary of blackmail, intimidation, and victimisation”.
“I note the immense outpouring of goodwill from ordinary Nigerians in every nook and cranny of Nigeria and from all regions, religions and relationships. Once again I thank you all for your support,” he added.
“I also thank the governors elected on the platform of my party, the PDP, as well as the National Executive Committee, for their unanimous and unambiguous support for the judicial phase of this struggle, especially after it was announced that we would go on to appeal.”
Lukman Abolade is an Investigative reporter with The ICIR. Reach out to him via [email protected], on twitter @AboladeLAA and FB @Correction94