In an exclusive interview with THE SUN, Prince Adewole Adebayo, the Presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), shared his insights on the recent verdict by the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) and the overall outcome of the February 25 presidential election.
Regarding the mixed reactions that followed the September 6, 2023 judgment of the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC), with many Nigerians suggesting it relied heavily on technicalities rather than the law and possibly set new precedents for the Supreme Court, Adebayo stated that he has maintained the same position since the election in March. This position, which the court upheld, emphasizes the need to distinguish between the events of the election day in the field and what is presented in court.
According to him, upon examining the PEPC judgment, one would find that the judges scored remarkably high, around 98 to 99 percent. On each issue, they correctly applied the law, and from a legal standpoint, there are no grounds to challenge the judgment.
Adebayo firmly believes that the Supreme Court will affirm the PEPC judgment without a doubt. In his opinion, the petitioners, including Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) and Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), should not have pursued the case to the Supreme Court. Instead, he argued that they are going to the Supreme Court to receive a photocopy of the PEPC judgment. He asserted, “Left to me, the petitioners should not have gone to the Supreme Court because they are just going there to receive a photocopy of the PEPC judgement.”
The SDP Chieftain emphasized that the lower court applied Supreme Court decisions, and it’s highly unlikely that the Supreme Court would overturn a court that relied on its own precedents to reach its recent decisions.
