JUST IN: Tinubu informs the tribunal that Peter Obi and Rabiu Kwankwaso shared Atiku’s votes

The presidential candidate of the All Progressive Congress, Bola Tinubu, says Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Get together couldn’t have received the February 25 presidential ballot as a result of a part of the votes he ought to have garnerned had been taken by the candidates of Labour Get together, Peter Obi, and Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Individuals’s Get together, who had been previously members of Atiku’s get together, the PDP.  Continue Reading…

Tinubu made this assertion in his preliminary objection to Atiku’s petition, in search of the nullification of the results of the February 25 presidential election.

The Unbiased Nationwide Electoral Fee had declared that Tinubu received the election with 8,794,726 votes.

The fee declared that Atiku got here second with 6,984,520 votes; whereas Obi and Kwankwaso received 6,101,533 and 1,496,687 votes, respectively, to complete third and fourth.

Atiku, who alleged manipulation of the ballot, had gone earlier than the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal in Abuja, praying that Tinubu’s declaration as winner be voided.

However in opposition, Tinubu, in response filed via his authorized crew, contended that there was no means Atiku may have received the election as a result of his possibilities had been dimmed by many components, together with the infighting inside his get together and the defection of Obi and Kwankwaso to different events.

In accordance with Tinubu, in 2019 when Atiku contested the presidential election in opposition to the President, Main Common Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), the PDP was extra cohesive, with Obi as his working mate and Kwankwaso as certainly one of his supporters.

He mentioned the state of affairs modified in 2023 as a result of “the identical Obi broke away from the PDP to affix the Labour Get together to contest the presidential election of twenty fifth February, 2023, whereas Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso additionally broke away from PDP to contest the presidential election on the ticket of the NNPP.

“Whereas Peter Obi polled a complete variety of 6,101,533, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso polled 1,496,687.

“Earlier than the balkanisation of the 2nd petitioner (PDP), the southeastern states of Enugu, Abia, Imo, Ebonyi and Anambra was managed by the 2nd petitioner, however on the presidential election of February 25, 2023, all of them went the way in which of Labour Get together.

“At a press convention addressed by the first petitioner on or about March 2, 2023, he admitted the adverse affect of the balkanisation of the 2nd petitioner on the fortune of his election, significantly, the exit of Peter Gregory Obi from the get together.

“Respondent pleads the nationwide newspapers that publicised the first petitioner’s press convention, together with The PUNCH of March 3, 2023, the place the first petitioner was reported to have lamented thus: It’s a indisputable fact that Peter Obi took our votes from the South-East and South-South, however that wouldn’t make him the President. You want votes from all over the place.”

Describing Atiku as a serial loser since 1993, Tinubu mentioned, “It was/shouldn’t be a shock and/or not by chance that the voters rejected the first petitioner on the polls of the presidential election held on February 25, 2023.”

Tinubu mentioned in contrast to him, who had maintained membership of a political get together and elevated his assist base, Atiku, then again, “has misplaced most of his followers within the strategy of shifting from one political get together to the opposite.” Continue Reading…