Chimamanda Adichie doesn't trust Supreme Court on Obi vs Tinubu
Adichie insists the 2023 presidential election was unforgivably flawed.
Chimamanda Adichie believes the 2023 election failed Nigerian voters [Manny Jefferson Makeup]
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The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives' Congress (APC) the winner of the controversial February 25 election ahead of 17 other candidates.
The former Lagos governor beat his closest rivals, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP), but they've both submitted petitions against the result at an election tribunal.
Adichie warned the president of the United States, Joe Biden, in an open letter on April 6, not to congratulate Tinubu to avoid legitimising an election she pointed out was manipulated.
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In a follow-up interview on Arise TV on April 11, the author said the election was "unforgivably flawed" and should be challenged. But she noted she's worried about the reputation of Nigeria's highest court delivering justice in the petition filed by Obi, her preferred candidate.
"I think there's reason to doubt (that a fair hearing is possible) because the Supreme Court has had rulings that just didn't make a lot of sense to most people, so there's reason to worry. But I'm generally hopeful and optimistic they'll do the right thing and the people will get justice," she said.
Petitions stack up against Tinubu
![Bola Tinubu will defend his election victory in five separate cases before the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal [Twitter/@mzk11uk]](data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf8,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg'%20width%3D'790'%20height%3D'527'%20data-ring-placeholder%3D'1'%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E "Bola Tinubu will defend his election victory in five separate cases before the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal [Twitter/@mzk11uk]")
Bola Tinubu will defend his election victory in five separate cases before the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal [Twitter/@mzk11uk]
Pulse Nigeria
Obi and Atiku's separate petitions have asked the tribunal to either declare them the true winners of the election or order a fresh round of election due to irregularities surrounding the February 25 contest.
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The Action Alliance (AA), Allied People's Movement (APM) and Action People's Party (APP) have also submitted petitions to invalidate the election and/or order a fresh one.
But Tinubu will be sworn in to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari on May 29 before the petitions can reach final conclusions at the Supreme Court around October. No sitting Nigerian president has ever been removed by the court.
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