After claiming he was not perturbed about events at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT), President Muhammadu Buhari has narrated how God saved him from been traumatised during the day the tribunal delivered its judgement.
The election that ushered in the president for another term of four years was challenged at the PEPT by his closest rival, Atiku Abubakar, candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Mr Abubakar in presenting his case, urged the tribunal to proclaim him and his party as winners of the February 23 exercise. His plea was dismissed for failing to show cause why such should be done.
Reacting to his victory at the tribunal, the president said he was not disturbed with events that trailed his declaration by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
But backtracking from his earlier claim, Mr Buhari has said it was actually God who saved him from being traumatised by allowing the first Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting in his second term to coincide with the judgement day.
He said discussions at the gathering got hold of his attention from concentrating at the tribunal ruling.
“On this judgement, again it was a fabulous coincidence that it came almost the same time the first Federal Executive Council meeting of this government was taking place,” the president said on Friday while playing host to state governors from the APC, at the presidential villa, Abuja.
“It lasted about the same time with the judgement. I thank God for that because I think would have gone into trauma or something. So I was busy trying to concentrate on the memo.
“The first memo was on the budget and it took more than five hours. So, while you were doing your thing for nine hours, we were doing ours for about seven hours here.
“It is a very interesting coincidence and I thank God for it because I would have been in trauma or something of that sort. So thank you very much for sharing the glory with us.
“What I will say to your congratulations, the chairman of the party and the governors is that we must make sure that we really institutionalized the party, so that when we leave the stage the party will continue to lead,” Buhari added.
The PDP candidate is yet to react to the tribunal judgement, despite the willingness of his legal counsel and the opposition party in seeking redress at the Supreme Court.
