‘2023 presidential polls most transparent and peaceful in the history of Nigeria’ – APC insists, vows to meet Obi in court

All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council (APC/PCC) in response to the vow by candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the February 25 elections, Dr Peter Obi to legally challenge results of the disputed national polls as declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has insisted that the election is the most transparent and peaceful yet recorded in the history of the country.

The council also assured that it will meet the LP candidate, Obi in court if he chooses to pursue his decision to challenge the outcome of the presidential polls.

It would be recalled that Dr Obi during a World Press Conference at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, in Abuja, had vowed to challenge the results declared by INEC which had returned the APC candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu as winner with a majority vote of 8,794,726 votes to defeat fellow contenders; Atiku Abubakar of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who polled 6,984,520 votes, his party’s 6,101,533 votes in third, and candidate of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) Rabiu Kwankwaso with 1,496,687 votes.

Of the 36 states and FCT, Tinubu and Atiku won 12 states each, as Obi clinched 11 states plus the Federal capital Territory (FCT), while Kwankwaso won only Kano State.

However, even before the final results were announced, protest over the outcome and conduct of INEC during and after the polls, had erupted, as opposition parties rejected the results and the collation process.

Similarly, the country’s former heads of state, as well as, international election observer groups have faulted the process and conduct of the polls, as some called for its cancellation.

In their various belated congratulatory messages to both President-elect, Tinubu, and the Nigerian electorate, the United States Government and the United Kingdom had urged President Muhammadu Buhari to address the shortcomings lodged by aggrieved parties with a view to solving them.

Aside Obi who had confirmed that the Labour Party will seek redress at the law court and challenge the results of the polls as declared by INEC, last Wednesday, the Presidential candidates of the main opposition, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and that of the African Action Congress (AAC), Atiku Abubakar and Omoyele Sowore, respectively, separately rejected outcome of the poll.

“The election that we just witnessed had been conducted and results announced as programmed; As we were promised.

This election did not meet the minimum standard expected of a free, transparent, credible fair election.

“It may go down as one of the most controversial elections ever conducted in Nigeria. The good and hardworking people of Nigeria have again been robbed by our supposed leaders who they trusted,” Obi told attendees at the press conference.

However, reacting to the decision by Obi and the Labour Party to head to court to challenge the outcome of the presidential polls, the APC/PCC, in a statement signed by its Director, Media & Publicity, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, insisted that the victory of Obi in Lagos, Nasarawa, Plateau,  Delta and Edo ‘attests to the credibility of the election process.’

“We welcome the decision of Mr. Obi to seek redress in court as an aggrieved party if he is convinced of the evidences 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.

“Contrary to his statement, it is not true that the election held 25 February was not free and fair.

“The 2023 election is one of the most transparent and peaceful elections in the history of Nigeria. It is because the process was credible that made it possible for Mr. Obi’s Labour Party to record the over six million votes it got contrary to pre-election forecast.

“That Labour Party and Mr. Obi surprised bookmakers by winning in Lagos State, Nasarawa, Plateau,  Delta and Edo where there are sitting governors of either  the All Progressives Congress or the Peoples Democratic Party. Those governors have entrenched political machinery.

“That Obi won attests to the credibility of the election process. In those states, most of the sitting governors contested election to go to the Senate and lost to little known  candidates of Labour Party.

“The Labour Party also swept the entire five South East states under the control of either APGA, PDP or APC.

“We believe that the Labour Party Presidential Candidate contradicted himself and exposed himself to public ridicule by suggesting that the election was only credible in states and places his party won.

We need us to forewarn Mr. Obi, that when he gets to court he should be prepared to tell the world how his party won over 90% of votes in his region of South East while other parties got almost nothing. “We have evidence of voters’ suppression, intimidation and harassment in South East especially of those who came out to vote for our party.

“Also when Mr. Obi gets to court, he will have to convince the court with his allegation of rigging in over 40,000 polling units across the country especially in North West and North East where his party had no party agents and did not sign result sheets as required by law.

“It is our assumption that Labour Party will enlist PDP agents to prove its fraud claims since it is an affiliate of PDP.

“We want to state again for the umpteenth time that Mr. Obi didn’t win the presidential election and could not have won under any circumstances. This is because he had no path to winning a national election in a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society like Nigeria where a candidate running in a national election must appeal to the cross-section of our pluralistic society.

“Mr. Obi anchored his presidential campaign on the failed strategy of ethnicity and religion, the divisive and dangerous politics that has hobbled the progress of our country for decades.

Nigerians simply rejected an ethnic and religious bigot through their ballots.

“Mr. Obi all through his campaign presented himself as the candidate of the Christians and the Church, who wanted to help ‘take back their country” from the Nigerian Muslims.

His campaign also ran on the engine of ethnicity, inflaming strong Igbo sentiments. He also sought to cash in on the supposed youth discontent in Nigeria, as fuelled by the ENDSARS protest in 2020.

“While Labour Party positioned its candidate as the harvester of the youth votes, its planners forgot that Nigeria does not have a homogeneous and monolithic youth population that can deliver bloc vote to any candidate.

“All the major parties that contested the election also have strong youth appeal and supporters.

“The lesson in Mr. Obi’s defeat in the election is that no politician in Nigeria can win a presidential race by being a sectional and an anointed candidate of any religion.

“Mr. Obi and his party knew why they failed. They knew they had no path to victory with their negative and dangerous campaign.

“We owe Labour Party and Peter Obi the blunt truth: They failed in the election. No amount of red-herring and misinformation about the election and the outcome can obliterate this reality.

“The President-Elect who was the candidate of our party won a Pan Nigeria mandate in a free, fair and credible election.

“He is ready and prepared to assume office so he can serve the people of our country with sincerity and honour,” read the full statement by the APC/PCC spokesperson, Onanuga.