Buba Galadima, a close political associate of the Presidential candidate of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) in the 2023 election, Rabiu Kwankwaso has said that he does not believe the presidential election petition tribunal can deliver justice in the petitions filed by aggrieved candidates in the February’s election.
Galadima stated this while speaking as guest on ChannelsTV interview program Political Paradigm on Tuesday.
Galadima stated that the NNPP does not believe the tribunal as constituted can reverse the results of the presidential poll, even when it was obvious that the election was not free and fair, stressing that recent revelations about happenings in the judiciary had further affected NNPP’s confidence towards the tribunal.
The NNPP chieftain further pointed out that the party would rather use the huge amount required to submit petitions at the tribunal to prepare for the 2027 general election.
According to him, “Which politician has succeeded in court since 1979 in Nigeria in a presidential petition case?
“Why waste our N10bn or 15bn because we heard some people are spending such billions now on social at the tribunal; if we have such money we would use it to prepare for the 2027 general election.
“The NNPP is strong, we did not do well because the registration of the party came late, if not for INEC targeting us and our candidates names and logo was omitted in some states we could have performed better”.
He asserted that the President must sack the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Mahood Yakubu for conducting the worse election in the nation’s history, stressing that NNPP was particularly targeted by the INEC chairman.
“The INEC chairman must go, what he did is not up to what Godwin Emefiele did. He colluded with some people to subvert the will of Nigerians. He committed the greatest crime anybody will commit”.
He debunked reports that Kwankwaso was joining the APC, but admitted that they are willing to work with the Tinubu’s administration for the interest of the country, stressing that President Tinubu had done well so far since assuming office.
“Kwankwaso has not told anybody he is joining the APC, people are just talking, but what we have before is winner take all, if Tinubu is calling for a unity government it is not a bad thing”, Galadima added.
Two of the leading candidates in the February’s 25 poll, Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) are challenging the election outcome at the presidential election petition tribunal in Abuja.
The candidates accused INEC of rigging the presidential poll in favour of the APC’s candidate, while the commission also refused to transmit the election results electronically through Bimodal Accreditation System (BVAS) according to the Electoral Act.
However, Kwankwaso, the NNPP presidential candidate who was fourth in the election is not challenging Tinubu’s Victory at the tribunal, in recent weeks there are reports, that he is willing to take up appointment in the Tinubu’s administration.
