The vice presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 election, Datti Baba-Ahmed, has suggested that whoever would unseat President Bola Tinubu in 2027 must be ready for a tit-for-tat, rather than waiting on the court to seek redress.
Baba-Ahmed spoke in an interview with Nigeria Right Now, uploaded on YouTube on Thursday.
He recalled warning Peter Obi, with whom he contested on the platform of the Labour Party in 2023, that the judiciary would not resolve what he described as fundamental “breaches of the constitution” perpetrated by the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the last elections.
“I told Peter Obi; supreme court cannot give you governor and give you presidency. For God’s sake, stand up and do something. The Nigerian Constitution was clearly breached,” he said.
“The Nigerian constitution was clearly breached; section 134 2b. It couldn’t be any clearer. Now, if it was June 12 people, and you breached not just the constitution but just one punctuation in their interest, I swear to God, nobody will sleep. They will take it.
“As much as I dislike the fact that they are using the Nigerian constitution, you must give it to them; they fight for their interest. They can organise rallies and can keep it up for three decades. And you are saying, ‘Let’s go to court; let’s go to court.’
“Whoever is going to defeat Tinubu must be ready to, I will use the word, ‘red eye’.
“You must show your red eyes because on that day that they are declaring the results, the people declaring fake results are criminals, and those who are stopping the declaration of fake results are good citizens.
Whoever is going to defeat Tinubu must show red eyes… there’s no going to court.”
In the 2003 Anambra governorship election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Chris Ngige of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) the winner, but Obi, candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), challenged the result and was later affirmed governor by the court of appeal in March 2006.
Similarly, in 2023, Obi challenged Tinubu’s victory, the APC presidential candidate, but his appeal was dismissed up to the supreme court level.
