Hundreds of members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the South West of the country have been mobilsed to Abuja to witness the maiden hearing of the petitions challenging Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s declaration as President-elect fixed for Monday, May 8 by the Presidential Election Petitions Court.
Authoritative source revealed that hundreds of members of the party drawn from all states in the South West have been mobilsed to Abuja to witness and give moral support to the PDP presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, during the hearing at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
According to the source, the mobilization was planned and financed by some individuals within and outside the country who are strong members of the party
“The mobilsed people are not going there to foment trouble or cause choas but to show their solidarity to our presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, whom we believed to have won the last February, 2023 presidential election stolen and given to Tinubu,” he disclosed.
It would be recalled that on March 1, Tinubu was declared the winner of the 2023 Presidential election by the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu.
Tinubu polled 8.8 million to defeat Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who scored 6.9 million, while Labour Party’s Peter Obi finished third with 6.1 million votes.
After Tinubu’s declaration, Atiku and Obi filed separate petitions seeking orders to annul the election.
Atiku urged the court to cancel the election and order a fresh election due to allegations of irregularities that marred the February 25 elections in many polling units.
The PDP argued that as of March 1 when Tinubu was declared the winner of the election, the entire results and accreditation data from polling units had not been transmitted and uploaded by INEC.
On their part, Labour Party alleged that the election was characterised by various irregularities including the non-qualification of Tinubu and his running mate, Kashim Shettima to contest the election.
Also, they alleged that the APC candidate did not win the majority of the lawful votes cast in the election, and just as he could not secure one-quarter of the lawful votes cast in the FCT.
