* Obi: We will prove LP won this election
* We support Peter Obi to challenge election result – SDP
* Obi surprised bookmakers but we are ready to meet him in court – Tinubu
The presidential candidates of Peoples Democratic Party PDP Atiku Abubakar and that of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, declared on Thursday, of their readiness to challenge the outcome last weekend’s presidential election, which saw the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, been declared as the President-elect by the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC.
In a separate press conference held in Abuja, yesterday, by the two frontrunners in the just concluded election, they reiterated their commitments to seek redress in the court of competent jurisdiction soon, to reclaim their separate mandates.
For Atiku, the election that produced Tinubu as president-elect is a “rape of democracy.”
He said “the battle to fight the wrong of Saturday is not about me but about Nigeria’s future. The battle is to deepen democracy and the future of the youth,” the former vice president said.
Atiku said that the 2023 presidential election presented Nigeria with a rare opportunity for the country’s reset but was truncated by the conduct of the Independent National Electoral Commission.
“INEC failed woefully to live up to expectations. The manipulations and fraud were unprecedented.
“It was a rape of democracy. The process and outcome of the presidential election were grossly flawed in every aspect,” Atiku added.
Obi, on his own part, claimed that he has facts that he won the election, adding that he would challenge the declaration of APC’s Bola Tinubu as winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), stating that declaration of a winner in the just-concluded presidential election was not the end.
He said that last Saturday’s presidential election was controversial and programmed to deliver pre-determined results, added that the election did not meet the necessary requirements and could not be adjudged credible.
The former Governor of Anambra state, who maintained that Nigerians were robbed of having their choice to them insisted that he would pursue justice through court and was ready to challenge the results till he prove his argument, even as he called on all the Labour Party supporters and the “Obdient” group to remain calm and not to be violent as he fights to reclaim the mandate they gave to him and his vice.
“Labour Party won the election and I will prove it
“I will challenge this rascality for the future of the country”. Obi vowed
“On this issue (presidential election) I am challenging the process,” Obi said.
He said he had challenged several election results and come out victorious and he would be approaching the court with the firm belief of getting justice.
He said, “We will explore all the legal and peaceful means to reclaim our mandate. We won the election. Datti and I are committed to the mandate of Nigerians. “The court exists for this and they have asked me to go to court and I will be going to court “We have to go through this darkness. The structure of criminality can’t go out overnight.
“All we need to show is commitment and resilience. I will be at the forefront and will work through this darkness until daybreak,” Obi vowed. He noted that the party is not in alliance with any other party in seeking redress.
“We are not in alliance; we are discussing with anybody and in partnership with other people and any other Nigerian who feel hot as we do”. Obi, who said that he believes in the integrity of the judiciary, added that he has won cases without compromising the judiciary and is determined to get justice without compromising the judiciary.
He said that he is not under any pressure and no one will put him under pressure in his quest to challenge a wrong process. “I am challenging a process that is faulty, a process that is wrong”. He appealed to the youths to be calm saying that it is going to be a long journey but he is determined to go through the journey with them.
He said that dislodging the structure will not be easy. “We are not going to ask these people to leave easily, that’s why they are there, that’s why there is structure. That structure of criminality can’t go away overnight. That structure of destruction can’t go overnight. Structure that has created 133 million people living in multidimensional poverty can’t go away overnight. Structure that has created 5 million people living under poverty can’t go away overnight.
“Structure that has created over 20 million out of school children can’t go away overnight. All we need to show is commitment, resilience, use all the resources we can, our energy. All I assure them is that I am not going away. I will be at the forefront.”
It would be recalled that the Labour Party had earlier faulted the process of collating the result of last Saturday’s Presidential and National Assembly Elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), saying it will challenge the outcome in court.
The party in a statement issued by the National of Secretary, Alhaji Umar Farouk Ibrahim said while the party made inroads with high votes in most parts of Northern Nigeria, LP members were deliberately prevented from voting, chased away, violently from polling units, or had ballot papers and boxes destroyed and burnt in others.
He cited Lagos, Rivers, Bayelsa, Kano, Yobe and Edo states among places where such acts were rampantly perpetrated in violation of the electoral act 2022 as amended. “The delay by INEC to upload and announce results, especially where the Labour Party, is already known to have taken lead, is also worrisome and we feel it is deliberate to anger our party and our supporters” he said.
Why INEC must immediately withdraw Tinubu s certificate of return PDP
However, PDP had in a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, on Thursday, before its presidential candidate addressed the press, said it rejected the outcome of the election in its entirety, the declaration and return of the Presidential Candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Tinubu, as President-elect.
“The PDP demands that INEC immediately withdraw the Certificate of Return issued to the Presidential Candidate of the APC and cancel the Presidential election declaration in line with its powers under Section 65 of the Electoral Act 2022.
“The Party insists that INEC, in declaring the APC Presidential Candidate as winner, acted contrary to the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), the Electoral Act 2022 and the INEC Guidelines and Regulations for the conduct of the 2023 Presidential election.
“The PDP holds that its Presidential Candidate, Atiku Abubakar clearly won the February 25, 2023 Presidential election having evidently scored the majority of lawful votes cast by Nigerians at the Polling Units.
“Sadly, the election was marred by deliberate malpractices including the non-use of the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) and INEC’s refusal/failure to transmit directly the results from Polling Units to its Server/Website in flagrant violation of Section 60 (4)(b) of the Electoral Act 2022.
“This violation of the Electoral Act by INEC as attested to by political parties, voters, Nigerians of all walks of life as well as local and International Observers, paved the way for the alteration, falsification, switching of results and allocation of figures in favour of the APC.
“Nigerians can recall how on Friday, November 11, 2022, INEC through its National Commissioner and Chairman of INEC’ Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, assured that results will be transmitted directly from the Polling Units to ensure the integrity and credibility of election results in Nigeria.
“In his words, “Our attention has been drawn to reports in a section of the media of alleged plans by the Commission to rig the 2023 General Election by abandoning the direct and real time electronic upload of Polling Unit results to INEC Result Viewing (IReV) Portal…
“The Commission has repeatedly reassured Nigerians that it will transmit results directly from the Polling Units as we witnessed in Ekiti and Osun State Governorship elections…. The IReV is one of the innovations introduced by the Commission to ensure the integrity and credibility of election results in Nigeria. It is therefore inconceivable that the Commission will turn around and undermine its own innovations. The Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and IReV have come to stay for voter accreditation and uploading of polling unit results in real-time in Nigeria”, ” the statement said.
According to the PDP, by refusing therefore to transmit directly the results from the Polling Units, INEC violated the Electoral Act and its Rules and Regulation, compromised the process and marred the integrity and credibility of the election results.
We support Peter Obi to challenge election result – SDP
Meanwhile the leadership of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) has declared its support for the LP presidential candidate in his quest to challenge the outcome of last Saturday’s presidential election
SDP National Chairman, Shehu Gaban, who addressed the media on the outcome of the polls, Thursday in Abuja, sated that while the party would not be challenging the polls outcome, it backs the position of the LP and PDP candidates to seek redress in court. Gaban, who expressed satisfaction with the performance of the party’s candidate at the presidential and National Assembly election emphasized that with two senators and about seven House of Representatives seats, the SDP has sent a message that it is a political party of repute in the country.
Obi surprised bookmakers but we are ready to meet him in court – Tinubu
Meanwhile, the president-elect, Bola Tinubu, says the performance of the presidential candidate of Labour Party, Peter Obi, in last Saturday’s election surprised many bookmakers.
Tinubu, in a statement signed by Bayo Onanuga – Director, Media and Publicity of APC Presidential Campaign Council, on Thursday, however, faulted the claim by Obi that the election was rigged.
He said the Labour Party which had no agents in North-East and North-West should not be crying of manipulation, saying the party knew that there was a way it could win the election.
The APC presidential candidate however, expressed readiness to meet Obi in court over the alleged rigging.
The statement reads in parts : “We watched with dismay today’s press conference addressed by the Presidential candidate of Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi where he made very weird and wild claims about the outcome of the just concluded Presidential and National Assembly elections, an election in which he emerged a second runner up, according to the result declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
“We welcome the decision of Mr. Obi to seek redress in court as an aggrieved party if he is convinced of the evidence of electoral frauds he will present before the tribunal as alleged.
Going to court is part of the electoral process and it is the most decent, statesmanlike and civilised course of action to take. We salute the decision. It is surely better than calling supporters to the streets and instigating social unrest.”