On Wednesday, 11th September 2019, the citizenry waited with bated breath for the presidential election petition tribunal in Abuja to deliver Judgement on the petition of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) challenging the victory of President Muhammadu Buhari, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC.
The atmosphere within and outside premises of the tribunal was charged and intense as gun-toting security operatives patrolled the vicinity, while judicial officers from the petitioner and respondents streamed into the court room with barely disguised look of uncertainty, but in other parts of the country, outside the political terrain and government, people went about their businesses with indifference to the imminent Judgement.
After what seemed like an eternity, with the judges having to do justice to the many motions filed by the petitioners and defendants, the Justice Mohammed Garba – led tribunal unanimously dismissed the case for lacking in merit after resolving all the five issues raised in the case against the petitioners .
Justice Garba, who read the lead judgment held that none of the grounds upon which the petition was anchored was proved,
It added that contrary to the claim by the petitioners , Buhari was eminently qualified educationally to contest the election and duly elected as the president, the dismissal of Atiku’s Petition in its entirety.
Subsequently, hardly had the hoopla generated by the verdict settled when Governor of Rivers state Nyesom Wike issued a statement Congratulating President Buhari on his victory at the tribunal.
Wike who has come under critism lately for allegedly demolishing a mosque in his state, said congratulating Buhari was the normal thing.
Wike’s action came as surprise to many, not only because he is a governor elected on the platform of PDP but also because he was Atiku’s campaign manager in the South South in the build up to the election. Some observers have opined that Wike’s decision to congratulate Buhari is not a spontaneous action but a decision borne of the dissatisfaction and anger that followed the emergence of Atiku as the presidential candidate of the PDP.
It was gathered that Wike was not happy with the outcome of the PDP presidential primary election because his preferred candidate, Aminu Tambuwal, Sokoto state governor did not clinch the ticket. This led to covert bad blood and pent up resentment towards Atiku-Obi Presidential ticket.
Expectedly, Wike’s congratulory message to Buhari has ruffled feather in the PDP’s camp, especially at the national level, with leadership of the party looking for ways to get back at Wike. “His position on the tribunal Judgement undermines the authority of the party and makes the party look weak to muster a challenge against the Judgement” PDP chieftain who does not want his name mentioned told LagosTimes.
“We felt betrayed by his actions, this is a case that’s still on going, the party still has the chance to appeal the Judgement at the Supreme Court but you think the best thing to do is to thwart the chances of the party at the Supreme Court by subtly accepting the Judgement of the tribunal, as a key member of the party that’s uncalled for from him and he will hear from us soon” Another PDP big shot spoke under condition of anonymity “He is not bigger that the party”
Meanwhile, in a move that counters Wike’s position, the PDP has said it would appeal the Judgement of the presidential tribunal at the supreme court.
In a statement on Sunday, Seriake Dickson, chairman of the PDP governors’ forum, said after studying the judgement they discovered “countless anomalies” in it.
Though many are not expecting the Supreme Court to overturn the Judgement of the tribunal but then what happens to Wike if the Supreme Court performs the unusual, his would then be case of a man who jinx himself by speaking prematurely, only to have to eat his words.