Peter Obi vs Tinubu: Resolve petitions before May 29, Afenifere urges tribunal

By Christiana Ekpa

The pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, has insisted that it would continue to support what it called “the victory of Peter Obi” of the Labour Party in the February 25 presidential election and all his endeavours in its realisation.
Afenifere reiterated that the emergence of a president from the South East would guarantee equity, fairness and peaceful co-existence among Nigerians.
At the April edition of its general meeting held in Ijebu-Igbo, Ogun State, the group called on the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal to ensure speedy resolution of all the petitions before it.
Obi and the Labour Party are in court to challenge the outcome of the presidential election, which Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) won.
But, in a communique signed after the meeting by the leader, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, and the group Secretary General Sola Ebiseni (retd), Afenifere strongly called on the judiciary to ensure all petitions in respect of the presidential election are “timeously and justly resolved before the end of the tenure of the Buhari administration.”
Afenifere described this as the only way through which the confidence Nigerians have in its intervention may be earned.
The group recalled that similar precedents in this regard have been laid, even by less endowed countries in Africa.
In the communique, Afenifere also asked the Federal Government not to be wasteful by committing about N100 billion to the coming population census.
Afenifere maintained that there is no compelling reason why the census must be held by “the expiring” President Muhammadu Buhari administration.
The group, therefore, called for “all steps and preparations in that regard [to] be stopped forthwith.”