The presidential candidates of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, and the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, have given indications they would be jucially contesting the declaration of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as President-Elect on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The PDP described Tinubu’s victory as “a grave injustice which will not stand.”
Senator Dino Melaye, spokesman and Director Public Affairs of the PDP Presidential Campaign Committee, in a terse statement on Wednesday evening, said there would be no going back on the battle to retrieve the mandate which he called a “stolen one.”
Presidential election result: I’il soon talk to Nigerians — Obi
Melaye said: “A clarion call on all Atiku’s supporters all over the world not to be perturbed. Weeping may tarry till night but joy cometh in the morning.
“This grave injustice shall not stand. The battle to retrieve our stolen mandate is a battle of no retreat, no surrender. We shall overcome.”
Obi on the other hand, spoke on Wednesday in Abuja at a press conference addressed by his Running Mate, Senator Datti Baba-Ahmed.
Baba-Ahmed said: “On behalf of our presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi, I address you all and indeed all Nigerians on the current situation in the country following the announcement of the purported result of the presidential election held on Saturday, February 25th 2023.
“Please be assured of our determination to fight the injustice that has been perpetrated on Nigerians through all legal and peaceful means. It is our position that the purported result did not meet the minimum criteria of a transparent, free and fair election.”
He said Nigerians trooped out en masse to vote for LP and for the cause they believed in, the birth of a new Nigeria.
Baba-Ahmed, who later spoke on BBC Hausa in a separate interview, said INEC should never have announced the result of the presidential election without attending to complaints and rectifying all the anomalies brought before the commission pertaining to the Presidential election.
His words: ” We are here to reiterate that the Electoral Commission is violating the law. This law was read to the Commission. It was shown to the Commission. The Commission said yes, it has seen it and would continue to violate the law until it finishes…”
Asked which law INEC violated, he said it was Electoral Act 64 sub-section 4 and section 65 of the Electoral Act 2022 as amended.
Datti Baba-Ahmed said the Act has stipulated that it was mandatory that at the completion of an election, the result must be transmitted to what was called IIREV.
“Furthermore, an Electoral Officer must not document the election result without ensuring that the result has been transmitted to the IREV.”
When told that the INEC Chairman said that doing so was not a must, Datti Baba-Ahmed said it was a law that stands.
He said: “Unless if a person said YES, I’ve seen the law but I will not adhere to it .”
He refuted the allegation that they were raising such issues because they could not win the election, insisting that they saw victory in the long run.
“We saw that we won the election, but they started changing the result of the election before we get to anywhere. That was what happened. If we had not won the election, no one would waste his time. ”
He insisted that the Electoral Act stipulated that it’s only what was inputted in the IREV that would be considered; not what was held manually: “But they did not input it in the IREV. So with what were they conducting the election?”
When asked about why their sudden alliance with the PDP, which was non-existent before now, he said those that were cheated would always have the same mission to search for justice.
He said: “We’ve been cheated, Nigerians were cheated. That is why we came together. All Nigerians were short-changed, it’s not only us. We are united because they cheated the whole nation. “
