*Congratulates President, his Vice, Shettima
By KEMI KASUMU, Abuja
Yesterday’s ruling by the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal (PEPT) in Abuja, affirming the February 25 election of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has been applauded by Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mr. Nyesom Wike.
In his reaction on Thursday, a day after of the marathon ruling of the court, Wike, a chieftain of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and immediate past Governor of Rivers State, commended the Tribunal for affirming the victory of All Progressives Congress (APC)’s candidate, Tinubu, in the presidential poll.
He spoke exclusively during a Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Thursday saying, “Nigerians have spoken, (and) the court has affirmed it”.
He hailed the five-man panel of the Tribunal led by Justice Haruna Tsammani for painstakingly delivering its judgment.
Wike said, “I didn’t expect that the election would be overturned because the President won squarely.
“I am happy; it’s a moment of joy. I celebrate Mr President and I congratulate him and his Vice, Shettima for the victory.”
“I also commend the judiciary. For the first time as far as I am concerned, I have never seen what I saw yesterday (Wednesday).
“It opened the eyes of the public. I commend them. For sitting nothing less than 10 hours to deliver those judgments, you must have to commend them, painstakingly taking each time one by one. For me, it shows that our judiciary is improving,” the minister added.
He urged the petitioners — PDP’s flag bearer, Atiku Abubakar; and his Labour Party (LP) counterpart, Peter Obi — to join hands with the Tinubu administration.
Wike, a member of the G5, an aggrieved group within the main opposition party, had publicly acknowledged that he supported Tinubu and worked against PDP’s Atiku in the last presidential poll.
