ENUGU, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA)- Former federal lawmaker, Ben Murray Bruce, says Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and his Labour Party (LP), counterpart, Mr Peter Obi, should not have gone to court to challenge the victory of President Bola Tinubu, of the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate.
The Bayelsa-born former lawmaker said this while reacting to the victory of Tinubu at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal on Wednesday.
Atiku and Obi are challenging the declaration of President Tinubu as the winner of the 2023 presidential election by the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC).
The two suffered a major setback on Wednesday in the legal battle to unseat Tinubu as Nigeria’s elected President.
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Both men are now heading to the Supreme Court where the matter would be laid to rest, but Ben Murray-Bruce opined that they should not have started the journey in the first place.
According to him, the politicians should have saved themselves the trouble by emulating former President Goodluck Jonathan, who in 2015, picked up his phone and congratulated Muhammadu Buhari even before the INEC announced the final results.
Bruce said also, that there should be no need to further waste time and resources once the electoral umpire has declared the winner of an election.
“We must follow the Jonathan doctrine and accept the people’s verdict in the interest of democracy and the nation.
“Our elections don’t have to end in the courts,” he he wrote on X.
The PDP chieftain further advised the aggrieved persons to accept the Tribunal verdict and place national interest above self-interest.
“Bola Ahmed Tinubu, @officialABAT, is the duly elected and undisputed President of Nigeria, @NGRPresident,” Bruce said, adding that there should be no further doubts and dispute after the judgement.