Nigerian Senior Lawyer Advises Peter Obi On Supreme Court Verdict

Wahab Shittu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), has advised Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) for the 2023 elections, not to criticise President Bola Tinubu’s success, but instead to offer his congratulations.

VerseNews reports that Shittu made this known hours after Obi criticized the Supreme Court’s opinion which endorsed Tinubu’s victory during February 25th, 2023 election.

Obi declared that the ruling of the Supreme Court effectively breaks the faith the Nigerian populace had in the judicial system.

Shittu, who appeared on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Monday, argued that in all competitions, there is a victor and a loser, recommending that Obi should accept his defeat and take it in good spirits as in any sport.

“In a contest, there must be a winner; there must also be a loser. As a sportsman, you should be able to accept defeat when you have lost. Mr. Peter Obi came not just second but third,” the senior lawyer said.

“He appealed to the Tribunal, he lost. He appealed again to the Supreme Court, he lost. I think what is required of him is to come out openly and congratulate the winner, that is how a democrat ought to behave.”

Recall two weeks ago, the Supreme Court dismissed the appeals from Obi and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The court asserted that the grievances of fraud, infringement of electoral regulations, and Tinubu’s qualification to run for president were not legitimate.

Shittu remarked that, although all court verdicts can be scrutinized, such scrutiny must be founded upon the merits and credentials of the ruling.

“Every judgement of a court of law can be criticized but the question is how do you criticize a judgement of a court of law? You can only criticize such a judgement on the index of justification,” he said.