The ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) on Monday, told the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi at the February general election that court cases are not won on public opinion but evidence and law.
APC said this on the heels of Obi’s reaction to the recent Supreme Court judgment affirming the victory of President Bola Tinubu at the presidential polls.
The LP presidential candidate stated that “the Supreme Court exhibited a disturbing aversion to public opinion just as it abandoned its responsibility as a court of law and policy.”
APC in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka described Obi’s reaction as belated and grouchy, noting that he failed on “both counts.
Morka said, Obi’s gross inability to distinguish between his warped version of public opinion and reality has been his greatest undoing throughout the electioneering season.
He said, taken by the mass hysteria of his “vociferous netizens and fringe supporters, Obi ensconced himself in alternate reality, a parallel political universe of self delusion.”
“At his Press Conference earlier today, November 6, 2023, Obi, again blamed our democratic institutions, particularly the courts for not awarding him victory – not because he won the election, not because he proved his case in court as required by law but because he is Peter Obi. That haughty sense of entitlement seems to pervade his vitriolic attack on our institutions.
“As someone who has previously benefited from the rulings of the Supreme Court on electoral matters”, Obi’s acerbic attack on the judiciary only belies his arrogance and vainness. When the same courts previously decided in his favor, the courts were beacons of democracy.
“Now that the decisions are against him, all of a sudden, the courts have betrayed democracy. Mr Obi, it cannot always be about you. It must always be about our country. Cases are not won on public opinion, they are won on evidence and the law. You failed on both counts,” the APC spokesman said.
Morka said APC welcomed the LP presidential standard bearer’s decision to engage in opposition politics going forward.
He urged Obi and his Labour Party to do so maturely and constructively, and contribute to the important task of building a safer, stronger and more prosperous country for Nigerians.