Presidential tribunal: Buhari, Atiku groups trade words

Two separate groups for the two leading presidential candidates in the 2019 general elections have exchanged words at the ongoing proceedings of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal.

The Buhari Media Organization (BMO) on Wednesday described the brief appearance of Professor Ben Nwabueze as lead counsel during the sitting of the tribunal, as a charade.

In a statement signed by its Chairman and Secretary respectively,  the BMO stated that Atiku Abubakar, who lost to President Muhammadu Buhari during the recent Presidential Elections had been making sentimental posturings aimed at attacking the legitimacy of the incumbent, knowing fully well that he lost the elections.

The group, which said the appearance was aimed at creating sentiments that cannot change his fate at the Presidential Elections Tribunal, stated that Atiku’s new gambles would not help him.

“Atiku, since he lost the Presidential elections, by almost 4 million votes, has been in the habit of making posturings that attempt to press down a false narrative that though he would eventually lose at the Tribunal, he was rigged out.

“He started with the fiction of a server that he claimed housed results where he won. It was so absurd because all the political parties in the country knew that there was no electronic transmission of results. In fact, INEC had informed the parties before the elections that there would be no such electronic transmission of results.”

“Atiku and his PDP’s insistence on a server was nothing more than a subterfuge, pulling wool over the eyes of Nigerians. His creation of this fiction was to sell a false narrative to Nigerians that he won the election – even when all facts and reality are showing the contrary,” the statement partly read.

But in a counter reaction, Justice Vanguard, a pro-Atiku group said that the BMO’s mischievous twist of facts had been exposed.

The convener of the group, Ezekiel Adeojo, said the Presidency had been sent into frenzy mode with the mind-boggling testimonies of Atiku’s witnesses at the ongoing Presidential Election Petition Tribunal which validated their earlier statement that Atiku’s mandate was stolen.

Adeojo said the APC had been panicking since the petitioner’s witnesses opened the putrid can of worms on how the electoral will of Nigerians was truncated.

“Even INEC has been contradicting itself; destroying whatever credibility that is left of the Commission just to defend indefensible electoral heist called 2019 presidential election.”

“We, Justice Vanguard has been reliably informed by our intelligence that Buhari Media Organization (BMO) has been given a matching order with commensurate funding by the Presidency to rubbish testimonies of Atiku’s witnesses in the media by ensuring that every comment of the witnesses is twisted in the public.”

“This explains the barrage of fake news in the media mutilating statements of Atiku’s witnesses, just to confuse Nigerian public and subsequently create holes in petitioner’s submissions.”

“We want to categorically inform Nigerians that these infantile propaganda reported as statements of Atiku’s witnesses, does not reflect what happened at the Tribunal in the last few days. We acknowledge the fact that the PDP’s witnesses are not infallible like every other humans, but does not have propensity to make such omnibus mistakes.”

“These stories were planted in the media by fake news industry called Buhari Media Organization (BMO) to reduce the discourse Atiku’s watertight petition is generating. Nigerians should watch out for more fake news as more spin doctors under the payroll of the ruling APC have been commissioned to unleash beehive of falsehood to corrupt impregnable facts being reeled out by Atiku’s witnesses at the tribunal. They are jittery because Atiku is indeed coming.”