Even as the electoral tribunal resumes hearings, President Muhammadu Buhari has encouraged opposition parties and candidates to accept the court’s judgment.
The president made the request during his farewell message to Nigerians on Sunday, May 28.
“Regardless of the outcome of the various cases, I urge all parties involved to accept our courts’ decisions and work together to build a better Nigeria,” Buhari added.
On March 1, 2023, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) the winner of the presidential election held a week earlier, with 8,794,726 votes cast.
The commission declared that Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) finished second with 6,984,520 votes, while Peter Obi of the Labour Party finished third with 6,101,533 votes.
However, Atiku, Obi, and other parties challenged INEC’s results and petitioned the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal to overturn Tinubu’s victory.
Buhari remarked in his parting speech that he admired the “doggedness and resilience” of all presidential candidates and their political parties for trusting in the country’s legal system and taking their complaints over election results to court.
In his own words:
President Buhari’s Farewell Live Broadcast Message to Nigerians
“During the campaigns, we argued and disagreed about how to make Nigeria better, but we never disagreed or doubted that Nigeria had to be better.”
“As your President, I call on all of us to bring the strength of our individualism, the power of our unity, and the convictions of our beliefs to bear in order to make Nigeria work better and together with one spirit and one purpose.”