Catholic Bishops on PEPT: Fate of Nigeria hangs

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria, CBCN, has expressed concerns over the judgement of the 2023 Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal, PEPT, upholding the victory of President Bola Tinubu.

Recall that the PEPT on Wednesday last week, trashed the petitions filed by the Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi and his Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, counterpart, Atiku Abubakar for lacking in merit.

Obi and Atiku who rejected the tribunal’s verdict, have resolved to end the matter in the Supreme Court.

Reacting to the controversy surrounding the judgement, President of the CBCN, Archbishop Lucius Iwejuru Ugorji, claimed that the tribunal’s verdict fell short of the people’s legitimate expectations, moral and legal standards.

The Bishop spoke on Sunday in Abuja while addressing an audience at the opening ceremony of the 2023 Second Plenary Assembly of the Conference.

According to him, with the move by Obi and Atiku to appeal the judgement at the Supreme Court, the fate of Nigerians have continued to “hang in the balance”.

He prayed that the Supreme Court Judges would be fair to the parties when delivering its judgement on the petitions.

“As this case moves to the next level, the fate of the country continues to hang in the balance and the future of democracy in our land stands on the edge of a precipice.

“We pray and hope that the Supreme Court Judges will neither bend the law nor seek to satisfy the whims and caprices of any party.

“We also pray and hope for a day in our nation when all election results will be finally decided at the polling units and not at the court,” he added.