PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS TRIBUNAL: "Declare Atiku Winner Now"... Yerima

 "The refusal of INEC’s lawyers to provide witnesses to debunk Atiku/PDP’s claims, was enough for the Tribunal to declare Atiku the winner of the election".... Comrade Yerima.


The Presidential Elections Tribunal, sitting in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, has been called upon to declare the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar as winner of the February 23rd Presidential elections.

Making this declaration is the National Chairman of the Arewa Youths Consultative Forum, Comrade Yerima Shettima.

Shettima, in a statement recently, said the call had become necessary following the refusal of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to call any witness to defend its case against the petition filed by the opposition PDP, on Monday, at the Presidential Tribunal, sitting on Monday.

It will be recalled that the PDP and its presidrntial candidate are challenging the declaration of President Muhammadu Buhari, of the All Progressives Congress, APC as the winner of the election by INEC.

According to Comrade Shettima, "the refusal of INEC’s lawyers to provide witnesses to debunk Atiku/PDP’s claims, was enough for the Tribunal to declare Atiku the winner of the election.

"Beyond the activities at the Tribunal, Nigerians are already clear about the fact that INEC wrongly declared Buhari the winner", the AYCF national leader stated.

"I am just concerned if, the Presidential Tribunal will declare the rightful winner of the election. Nigerians already know what transpired during the elections, before the case got to the Tribunal".

"But now that the case is at the Tribunal, we hope that justice will be done as expected by everyone".

"Today now, we all saw what happened at the Tribunal. And we all know what that implies. I wish the court will do the right thing", Yerima said.

"However, whatever they do, the consequence is awaiting us in the future. I will tell them to be careful not to allow a repeat of what happened during the 1993 election between MKO Abiola and Bashir Tofa".

The AYCF national president stressd that, whatever happens while the Tribunal sittings last, will forever remain in the history of Nigeria’s democracy.

Hr added that, the next generation will never forget whoever participated in rewriting history.

"For INEC not to bring a witness, simply means that they know the truth. It also means that what PDP brought forward, was the true picture of what transpired during that election. And if that be the case, the court should not delay in doing justice to the matter, by declaring Atiku the winner of the election", he declared.

When the Tribunal called INEC to open its case, on Monday, the Electoral Umpire’s lawyer, Ustaz Yunus Usman, SAN, affirmed before the Tribunal that it will not be necessary, on the grounds that the evidence extracted from the petitioners’ witnesses during cross-examination, is in support of the Commission’s case.