The candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP) in the February 25 presidential election, Messrs Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, have announced their intention to challenge the declaration of the president-elect, Mr. Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as winner of the election.
The duo disclosed this in separate statements issued at the end of their media briefings in Abuja on Thursday.
Tinubu, the ruling party candidate, was declared president-elect by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) having polled 8,794,726 votes, while Atiku and Obi got 6,984,520 votes 6,101,533 votes respectively.
The opposition candidates alleged that the vote had been rigged after the new technology that INEC had promised would make the process more transparent instead malfunctioned, eroding trust.
In a statement entitled: ‘Why I’m challenging Tinubu’s victory’ Atiku said the election was neither free nor fair.
He said preliminary assessments indicate that it was the worst conducted elections since the return to democratic rule.
He said the exercise was “indeed a rape of democracy.”
“The manipulation and fraud that attended this election was unprecedented in the history of our nation,” he added and wondered why INEC was in such a hurry to conclude collation and announcement of the result, given the number of complaints of irregularities of bypassing of the BVAS, failure of uploading to the IREV, and unprecedented cancellations and disenfranchisement of millions of voters in breach of the Electoral Act and the commission’s own guidelines.”
He said his decision of going to court is meant to deepen democracy, enthrone rule of law and ensure the future of the youths is secured.
Atiku hoped that the judiciary “will redeem itself this time around and rise to the society’s expectation as the last hope” so that “in the end, who wins is not as important as the credibility of our elections and electoral processes.”
He appealed to “all men and women of goodwill to join hands with us in the vanguard to defend our constitution from the brigandage of anti-democratic forces.”
The PDP standard bearer also urged Nigerians to remain vigilant and resolute saying they have the constitutionally guaranteed right of freedom to choose their leaders.
“We will not sit idly by and watch your rights taken from you,” Atiku added.
For his part, Obi also announced that he and his party would head to court to challenge Tinubu’s victory.
While appealing to his supporters across the country to remain peaceful and allow the law to take its course, Obi said he won the election and called Tinubu’s victory fraudulent and promised to claim the mandate through legal means.
He said the election was a clear deviation from the electoral rules and guidelines “as we were promised and did not meet the minimum criteria of a free, transparent, credible and fair election devoid of voter intimidation and suppression, and late commencement of voting in some specific states.”
He said the election “will probably go down as one of the most controversial elections ever conducted in Nigeria,” adding that the “good and hardworking people of Nigeria have again been robbed by the institutions and leaders whom we trusted.”
He assured all Nigerians that the party will explore all legal and peaceful options to reclaim our mandate.
“We won the election and we will prove it to Nigerians.
“The good and hardworking people of Nigeria have again been robbed by our supposed leaders,” Obi told a news conference in his public statement after the election.
