PEPT: Why I Didn’t Challenge Tinubu In Court – Sowore

Omoyele Sowore

Omoyele Sowore, the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) in the 2023 elections has given reasons for not challenging President Bola Tinubu's victory at the Presidential Elections Tribunal, unlike his other counterparts.

According to him, he didn’t think justice would be served if he had done so, noting that he had no confidence in the tribunal because the court had never delivered justice in election-related matters before.

Sowore, while fielding questions on Arise News, said the courts in Nigeria have never nullified an election in the country, so he wondered why the flag bearers of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party, Atiku Abubakar, and Peter Obi would think their case would be exceptional.

His reaction followed the verdict of the presidential election petition tribunal on Wednesday. The tribunal had upheld the victory of President Bole Tinubu at the February 25 presidential polls.

Recall that both Atiku and Obi, with their parties, had challenged Tinubu’s victory in court. However, the tribunal quashed their cases yesterday while validating  Tinubu’s victory.

In his reaction, Sowore said, “What you are saying regarding the Labour Party and the PDP is what people like us have always said that they are the same.

“We are not part of that coalition or alliance. And with regards to the court, when somebody steals your thing, and you can retrieve it from him, but he says no, go to court. You have to wait for the court to convene.

“But a court that gave you a governor that was fourth in Imo state is not likely to be a court that I will be heading to when I am cheated on this scale. The court that has not delivered justice to people like me since I was born in this country is not a court that I can tell you that I have implicit or explicit confidence in.

“If you go to court, you can almost determine what would be the outcome of the court.”

The AAC flag bearer noted that opposition parties are constantly lured to go to court as a way to calm Nigerians.

He continued: “The courts in Nigeria have never nullified a presidential election. Even in 2007, when they conducted an election in which there were no serial numbers on the ballot papers, the court declared that you don’t need serial numbers, and the person for whom the election was rigged by President Olusegun Obasanjo, that is Yar’Adua, came out and said this election was problematic. He accepted the booty regardless.

“So I do not think we are going to head to the court that may not be able or hasn’t delivered justice in similar matters for us.

“I think the reason they are asking these people to go to court is to calm the nerves of Nigerian people so that they accept this rubbish as a fait accompli.

“And they ensured that there were no uprisings on the streets to retrieve the stolen mandate of whatever fraudulent election they conducted.

“That is the reason they direct you to the courtroom because they know what the outcome would be. We also know how these courts are constituted by political parties in power. So we can’t be here deceiving ourselves.”