PDP leads protest march to INEC in Abuja over presidential poll results, as APC dismisses ‘empty threats’

Presidential candidate of the main opposition, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Monday, led a protest to the headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in protest over outcome of Presidential poll held across in the country, penultimate Saturday, February 25.

The protest march which also gathered leadership of the party, including its National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, had some civil society organisations, who joined to demonstrate against the process and conducted of the disputed elections.

The PDP, along with the Labour Party (LP) have since instituted suits at the Presidential Elections Tribunal (PET) in Abuja challenging the results of the polls which the INEC had, last Wednesday morning, declared the candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinbu, as winner and President-elect.

The PDP is protesting alleged irregularities in the conduct of the 25 February presidential election.

International election observer groups, in addition to governments of the United States and United Kingdom had equally asked the INEC to address irregularities which occurred at the February 25 polls in time before the scheduled March 11 state governorship and Assembly elections nationwide to avert unrest in the country.

The protesters who all wore black uniforms to the INEC headquarters had first arrived at the PDP headquarters, at about 11 am, Monday, March 6, while joined by other party faithful.

At about 11:10am, the protest march kicked off with Ayu and Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, PDP vice-presidential candidate, who led other party stalwarts and members in the protest scheduled to INEC headquarters.

Other National Working Committee (NWC) members of the PDP and chieftains of the party in the protest include; Senator Adolphus Wabara, Chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees (BoT); Aminu Tambuwal , the governor of Sokoto state; Raymond Dokpesi; Boni Haruna, former governor of Adamawa state, as well as, and other chieftains of the party.

According to INEC, while declaring Tinubu winner and president-elect, the APC candidate had polled 8,794,726 votes, to beat off the challenge of Aiku who secured 6,984,520 votes..

It would be recalled that the Labour Party and New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) had also demanded cancellation of the results, but the latter shelved court action, while only the PDP and LP filed suits at the PET, last Friday.

Presenting the protest letter, Ayu insisted that INEC must cancel the election and conduct a fresh one ‘that will be respected not only by Nigerians but by the whole international community.’

Meanwhile receiving the protesters at the INEC headquarters, INEC’s National Commissioner for Voter Education and Information, Festus Okoye, assured that their ‘grievances’ will be addressed.

“I have received this particular protest letter on behalf of the chairman of INEC and I promise you that this letter will be transmitted to him.

“If there are remedial issues to be dealt with, we are going to deal with those remedial issues.

“But I want to assure you that this commission is a listening commission. This commission is a public trust and this commission belongs to the Nigerian people.

“This commission does not have any allegiance to any political party. We don’t have allegiance to any political party. We don’t have any allegiance to any candidate. Our allegiance is to the people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. I want to thank all of you for the peaceful way this protest has been conducted.

“The commission belongs to the Nigerian people and whatever grievances there are, we will look into all those grievances. If there are grievances that can be redressed, we will redress those grievances but I want to plead that all of us should continue to be peaceful and all of us should continue to respect the integrity of the commission and also the integrity of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“I am going to go and hand over the protest letter to the chairman of the commission and I want to assure you that the commission will meet over this letter, look into it and address some of the issues.”

Meanwhile, reacting to the protest march by the PDP to the INEC headquarters, the ruling APC has described the protest march as ‘empty threats.’

Chief spokesperson for the APC Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), Mr. Festus Keyamo in a post via his verified Twitter handle condemned the protest.

“I understand PDP is planning a protest. Question: are they also protesting that LP rigged in the areas where LP won? Are they saying @officialABAT should not have won the South West? Are they calling for cancellation of areas they won in the North? What really are they saying?”

Also, another chieftain of the APC, Femi Fani-Kayode, accused the PDP of trying to incite and destabilise Nigeria with their protest.

On his part, another spokesperson of the APC Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), Mr Femi Fani-Kayode, Monday, via his verified Twitter handle described the protest as ‘a dangerous precursor to something more sinister.’

“The PDP’s protest march scheduled for tomorrow in Abuja is a dangerous precursor to something more sinister.

“They wish to incite the people & destabilise the nation. The security agencies should take note & stop this nonsense before things get out of hand & people are killed.

“How can you be in court and be protesting in the streets at the same time? @officialABAT has extended his hand in good faith for peace. He has invited them to the table of fellowship and leadership but in their destructive wrath and blind rage they have rejected it.

“We lose no sleep over their childish tantrums and empty threats. Whatever they are planning we are ready for them.

“Make no mistake about it: whatever it takes and whether it be in the street, the courts or elsewhere, we WILL defend our mandate,” Fani-Kayode posted.