The spokesman of the Labour Party (LP) Presidential Campaign Committee, Yunusa Tanko, has debunked the claim that its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, went into hiding after his loss at the Supreme Court.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court, ended the 171-day legal tussle to nullify the election of President Bola Tinubu with the rejection of the election appeals filed by Peter Obi and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.
Atiku submitted an application to present fresh evidence against Tinubu in respect of the diploma certificate from Chicago State University (CSU), which the president gave to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
In the lead judgment delivered by the Chairman of the seven-man panel, Justice Inyang Okoro, the apex court refused to consider Tinubu’s academic records obtained from CSU, which Atiku sought to prove his allegation of certificate forgery against the president.
The other justices on the panel, Uwani Aji, Mohammed Garba, Ibrahim Saulawa, Adamu Jauro, Abubakar Tijjani, and Emmanuel Agim, agreed with the lead judgment, which dismissed Atiku and Obi’s appeals.
Amidst the dissatisfaction in response to the verdict, Atiku has promised to address the nation on Monday concerning the outcome of the ruling and other national issues.
Many leadership and supporters of the LP had also expected Obi to speak up on the judgment, but his deafening silence after the apex court verdict prompted speculations among social media users that the former governor of Anambra State must have gone into hiding or was still hurting from the loss.
However, Tanko, while speaking with PUNCH, debunked the speculation, adding that Obi travelled out of the country long before the Supreme Court notice arrived.