A social critic and strong supporter of Peter Obi, the Labour Party presidential candidate in the 2023 general elections, Aisha Yesufu, has refused to acknowledge Bola Tinubu as her president despite the recent pronouncement of the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC).
Yesufu was one of the most vociferous advocates of an Obi presidency and travelled the length of the country with the Labour Party candidate during the campaigns.
The co-founder of #BringBackOurGirls spoke in a ‘Mic On’ podcast titled, ‘The PEPC Judgment: Hopes met or dashed’ hosted by Channels TV presenter Seun Okinbaloye, on the night of Saturday, September 9, 2023, where she insisted that Tinubu “rigged his way” to Aso Rock.
“Tinubu did not win the 2023 presidential election and will never be my president because he rigged his way to be declared the one with the majority votes. And as for me, that is a political coup. That is a civilian coup and it is the mandate of the people that was stolen.
On Wednesday, September 6, 2023, a five-man panel of the PEPC led by Justice Haruna Tsammani dismissed all the petitions brought before it by Obi and other opposition, seeking to nullify the victory of Tinubu in the February 25 election.
The petitioners had, among other claims, alleged that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) erred in declaring the President winner due to his failure to score 25% of votes cast in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) as well as failure to upload polling unit results online in real-time.
For her part, Yesufu faulted the PEPC for affirming Tinubu’s victory, saying, “I stayed for over 13 hours in the court and I heard all the judgement read by the Supreme Court justices. It was all a movie.”
“And there was a trailer before the movie, it began when the former Supreme Court justice, Mary Odili spoke. It already preempted what we expected.”
Speaking further, the social critic alleged that the judiciary is compromised while referencing the issue of the inadmissibility of card readers in court, citing Nyesom Wike and Dakuku Peterside’s case in Rivers State.
“The politicians always believe that they control the court that is why they are quick to tell people to go to court if they are satisfied with the results of elections.”