Declare Atiku winner now, PDP urges INEC

…Alleges Buhari, APC seek to alter results

… Allow INEC to complete exercise, APC warns PDP

OBIORA IFOH, Abuja

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has charged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to immediately announce results as delivered from the polling units and declare the people’s candidate, Atiku Abubakar, the winner of the February 23 Presidential election.

PDP in a statement by National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan said the party’s position is predicated on clear and verifiable results across the nation, showing that Atiku Abubakar is in clear lead both in spread and total number of votes cast.

He said, “Intelligence available to us is that INEC is delaying the announcement of results following directives by the Buhari Presidency and the All Progressives Congress (APC), which are bent on altering the figures from the polling centers and allocate fictitious figures for President Muhammadu Buhari, particularly in northern states.

“Curiously, INEC server is now shut down, results are no more being transmitted and the reason is to enable the APC to inflate figures from six designated states.

“We call on international observers and election monitors to insist on a transparent process of transmission of results and the monitoring thereof.

“We already have reports of how APC governors in the northern states have been making desperate effort to tamper with the results of the elections in their respective states with the view to award conjured votes to President Buhari.

“In Kogi state, Governor Yahaya Bello has been making frantic moves to change results to suit APC’s intent and purposes as against the wishes of the people, expressly delivered at the polls.

“Nigerians already know how the Minister of Transportation and the Director-General of the Buhari Campaign, Rotimi Amaechi, used the military to hold an INEC official in River state, Mrs. Mary Efeturi, hostage and insisted that she will not be released until she alters the results in favour of President Buhari.

“The PDP calls on INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu to note that in this age of Information Communication Technology, Nigerians already have the results as delivered at the polling centers and any attempt to alter any figure will be faced with vehement resistance.

“In delaying the announcement of the results, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu is allowing the APC to turn him into a villain and directly pitching him against the people. He should therefore extricate himself from the rejected APC and be on the side of the people, by immediately announcing the results as already delivered at the polling units and declare, the people’s candidate, Atiku Abubakar, the winner.

“Anything short of this is not acceptable to Nigerians, who had already expressed their wishes and aspiration at the polls”.

But in a swift reaction, APC said PDP’s position was an unwarranted strike against democracy and the people of Nigeria.

APC’s National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu said “This call is shameful and alarming. Unwilling to wait for INEC the constituted legal authority to complete its task, the PDP seeks a short cut by false and premature claims of victory. This cannot stand.

“Our nation is trying to perfect its democracy, not turn it into a mockery. Sadly, this objective is lost to the PDP. The PDP’s guiding principle is distilled to the following; because they want something, then they should get it. What they use to guide themselves actually blinds them instead.

“Because they want the presidency so badly that they have engaged in all manner of misconduct and spared little cost to achieve their aim, they now believe that they are entitled to claim victory notwithstanding the vote and will of the people. But this is not the way of democracy. Democracy means the people choose for themselves not that the PDP chooses for them.

“That may have been the way in the past when they engineered and kidnapped elections to achieve their desired end notwithstanding the true will of the people. Thankfully, those days are gone and gone forever.

“These elections are supposed to be democratic exercises not a platform for the PDP to impose their selfish designs on a hopeful nation. The PDP should honour and follow the sovereign will and sober dignity of the Nigerian people.

“The people patiently waited the additional week for Election Day to come. The vast majority of people again exercised patience as they peacefully voted on Election Day. Unfortunately, isolated incidents of violence took place. We are deeply saddened by the violence and disruption that did occur. Nigerians died yesterday and that should never have happened and should never happen again during an election of any kind in our land. Their deaths are needless tragedies that mar what was otherwise a celebration of our maturing democracy.

“Instead of the discordant and provocative statement it released, the PDP should be appealing for peace and for INEC to diligently and thoroughly perform the vital task assigned it. Curiously, the majority of violent incidents and reports of electoral malpractice emanate from states which the PDP controls. It appears the PDP just cannot break from their old ways.”

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