Tribunal judgement: Nigerians, not Atiku, are losers

The Coalition of the United Political Parties on Wednesday said
it received with angst the judgment of the Presidential Election
Tribunal which upheld President Muhammadu Buhari’s election.

The CUPP spokesperson, Mr. Imo Ugochinyere, said CUPP rejected
the verdict totally since, according to him, CUPP viewed it as law
turned upside down and an insult and a provocation to
Nigerians.

He said, “From the totality of the judgment, the Court of Appeal
PEPT panel has lost the rare opportunity presented to it by the
petition of the consensus opposition candidate, Atiku Abubakar, to
put an end to electoral fraud, leadership incompetence and the
imposition of an unfit leader on the people.

“By their judgment today, majority of Nigerians who had
believed, though erroneously, that the judiciary was indeed
independent have been brazenly awakened to the fact and correct
belief that the Presidency had successfully hijacked the judiciary
and Nigerians can only expect judgments and not justice.

“All credible observer groups both local and international were
unanimous in their verdict that the election was below the standard
of the 2015 and was massively rigged in favour of the President,
the Court of Appeal wasted the opportunity and have by so doing
endorsed the insecurity in the land, mismanagement of national
resources, electoral fraud, forgery of documents and certificates
submitted to INEC and indeed threatened the very foundations of our
democracy.

“Could the Court as it had done in times past not this time also
considered the state of the nation, mood of Nigerians, national
security issues and taken a decision boldly, impartially and firmly
in the interest of Nigerians and Nigeria? Today’s judgment is a
manipulation of the law and the brazen use of technicality to stamp
injustice, Rob the people of justice and deny the nation the chance
to have a leader that they truly elected in the Person of Atiku
Abubakar.

“The nation weeps today, West Africa is crying and the
International community is in shock.

Our brothers who are being held hostages by poverty, bandits,
killed daily etc are now in coma as the Appeal Court have used
today’s judgment to deny them a saviour and foisted on them a
leader who was not eligible for presidential office, a leader who
does not have the capacity to govern, a leader who rode on the
blood of our people to power using security agencies, a leader who
employs divisive weapon and ethnicity in governance and a leader
who claims to be fighting corruption but dinning and sleeping with
men known to be corrupt. The nation is the loser today, not Atiku
Abubakar or the opposition.”

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