ENUGU, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA) – General Yakubu Gowon (rtd), a former Head of State, has urged Nigerians to accept as final the decisions of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal.
Following the 25 February presidential election, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu, had on 1 March, 2023, declared All Progressives Congress’ Bola Tinubu the President-Elect on the grounds that his party scored the majority of votes cast in the polls.
The hearing of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal has been scheduled to start on Monday 8 May, as Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) and Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) challenge president-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s electoral win.
Tinubu had polled 8.8 million votes to defeat Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who scored 6.9 million votes, Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) who polled 6.1 million votes and 15 others.
However, Atiku and Obi are disputing the result, claiming to be the actual winners of the election.
Speaking at a symposium in honour of a one-time Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Chike Idigbe on Thursday, Gowon urged Nigerians to allow the courts do its work without interference.
He said: “We need to allow the apex court to come up with their decisions and for the public to be humble enough to accept their decision as final in order to maintain the sanctity of the judiciary as individuals and institutions.
“The litigation tribunals that are now going, let us give the judiciary the opportunity to do their work and let us accept their decisions as it is.”