Former presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Abubakar Atiku, has taken his challenge against the victory of Bola Tinubu in the 2023 presidential election to court.
Atiku's legal team, led by Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chris Uche, presented a final petition before the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC), alleging severe irregularities in the election process.
Atiku stated that the February 25 poll, which resulted in Tinubu's declaration as the winner, was the worst in the history of Nigeria. The petitioners accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of compromising the will of Nigerian voters, despite implementing a new electoral act and introducing technological innovations to ensure transparency.
During the proceedings, Atiku's lawyer argued that INEC utilised a "technical glitch" as a pretext to deliberately manipulate the election results. They alleged that Atiku's votes were suppressed and discounted, while Tinubu's were inflated, leading to the latter's victory.
Furthermore, Atiku's legal team contended that Tinubu did not meet the mandatory constitutional requirement of securing at least a quarter of the votes cast in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. They raised concerns over Tinubu's eligibility to contest for the presidency, citing a forfeiture judgment against him of $460,000 for a narcotics-related crime in the United States.
They also alleged that Tinubu holds dual citizenship of Nigeria and Guinea and presented forged documents to INEC.
In response to the allegations, Atiku's petition underscored that the court should not be swayed by any attempts to create national chaos or anarchy and called for justice to be served.