A member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Segun Sowunmi, says President Muhammadu Buhari told what he described as a lie of a fundamental nature about his certificate in the build-up to the 2019 general elections.
He stated this in reaction to the judgement of the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal which affirmed the President’s election for another term in office.
Sowunmi, a spokesperson for the PDP Presidential Campaign Council, said he was unhappy with President Buhari for some reasons.
“With profound respect, nobody in the PDP would have said Buhari is not qualified in all material particulars, that’s not the case,” he noted during his appearance on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics.”
The PDP member added, “The case is simply that he told a lie of a fundamental nature. No one will say he is not qualified through other routes.
The Fourth Attempt
Buhari, who won the bid to become president in his fourth attempt, defeated his closest rival of the PDP, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, to extend his tenure in office.
Apparently dissatisfied with the outcomes of the keen-contested poll which held on February 23, Atiku and his party went to the Tribunal to challenge the victory of the President.
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Also listed as respondents in the suits are President Buhari’s party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
After months of litigation, a five-man panel of judges in a unanimous judgement held that the President won the election.
The opposition party has since rejected the judgement of the Tribunal, saying it would be tested at the Supreme Court.
While its lawyers are making preparations to appeal the ruling, Sowunmi believes Buhari has failed to learn from his experience while fighting to become president.
One of the purported mistakes, according to him, was the refusal of the President to assent to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, 2018.
The PDP member said, “For the first time, it done on me what he had to endure three times in a row and how up-hilling this duty of how do you prove election fraud.
“I am a little bit unhappy with him that he didn’t really use that opportunity to improve that electoral (system) before the election.”
He, however, said Atiku would react to the ruling at the appropriate time, adding that the former vice president was aware that his primary role in the nation’s democracy was to be a statesman.
