By Daniel Edu
Former Vice President and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has asserted that he won in 21 states during the presidential election and is seeking the removal of President Bola Tinubu through his legal team led by Chief Chris Uche, SAN.
Atiku’s claim is based on the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) response to his petition challenging the election of President Tinubu. Atiku argues that INEC’s failure to refute his victory in the listed states in their final argument is an implicit acknowledgment of its validity.
The states where Atiku claims victory include Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Borno, Delta, Ekiti, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Osun, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe, and Zamfara.
According to Atiku, the court should accept his claim as valid and uphold his election victory since INEC did not challenge his victories throughout the proceedings.
In his final written address, Atiku highlighted that INEC admitted in its reply to the petition that he won in the aforementioned 21 states, and they did not deny or countermand this statement. He also claimed that INEC manipulated the electoral technologies to favor President Tinubu and wrongfully declared him the winner.
Atiku further alleged that the bypassing of the prescribed verification technology was nationwide and substantially impacted the election outcome. He also pointed out that President Tinubu failed to secure the mandatory constitutional requirement of obtaining a quarter of the votes cast in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
As the second-place candidate in the presidential election, Atiku is requesting the presidential tribunal to declare him the winner of the February 25, 2023 election. The case remains under consideration by the tribunal.
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