Labour Party has told the All Progressives Congress to get ready to defend the alleged stolen presidential election awarded to its candidate Bola Tinubu by the compromised Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof Mahmood Yakubu.
The Obi-Datti presidential campaign organisation which stated this in a statement titled: “We have no common grounds with the APC, on a rigged election,” on Friday, revealed that it was in possession of evidences across polling units nationwide to show its presidential candidate, Peter Obi won the election conducted last week Saturday.
According to INEC official results, the 70-year-old Tinubu came out tops in 12 of Nigeria’s 36 States, and secured significant numbers in several states to claim the highest number of votes to defeat main challengers – Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party and Peter Obi of the Labour Party who came second and third places respectively.
While Tinubu polled a total 8,794,726 million votes, according to INEC official results, the 76-year-old former Vice President, who has now run for president six times, secured 6,984,520 votes, and Obi, who, in less than a year, galvanised young voters in a manner some have described as unprecedented, finished the race with 6,101,533.
However, after the Labour Party presidential candidate declared that he would challenge the out election in court, the APC presidential campaign council said on Thursday that Tinubu will engage Obi if he has concrete evidence that he won the presidential election.
The campaign Council in a statement by its Director of Media and Publicity, Bayo Onanuga, titled “We will meet Mr. Peter Obi in court,” stated that in an election in which Obi finished third, his allegation of fraud was very strange.
Responding to the APC’s statement, LP campaign said the APC and its candidate, Bola Tinubu, had remained restless, because they had murdered peace.
“Despite the obvious and well-documented rejection during Saturday’s election, the INEC’s declaration of Tinubu as president-elect will undoubtedly go down in history as a most bizarre act of electoral fraud,” according to the statement.
The statement partly read: “Since this unsettling declaration as winner of a charade, as supervised by Prof. Mahmood Yakubu and his men, and which has rightly been condemned by millions of Nigerians and also by international observers, the APC and its candidate, Bola Tinubu, have remained restless, because they have murdered peace.
“What may be gleaned by Mr Onanuga’s empty and futile attempt to throw truth on its head, is that Mr Obi was declared 3rd, so he has no standing to contest the results, that many prominent parties and personalities lost their states and contested seats, so therefore the elections were free and fair,and that Mr Peter Obi and the Labour Party swept the elections in the southeast, so it was an indication of fairness.
“What we seek, simply, is that the true results, as recorded by Nigerian voters, in the polling booths, be processed, as required by law, by instantly transmitting them to the INEC server and thereafter being reflected on the IREV before declaration, as they form the primary record of the election, for all tabulation, collation and declaration.
“The idea of criminally withholding passwords, inflation, alteration, substitution, manipulation and fabrication of voting figures and Form EC8A, outside this simple process, remains an illegality, even where they have been criminally crafted for the Labour Party to maintain its deserved lead, at any sub unit of the election.
“It is clear that we have little grounds in common with Onanuga or the APC, to begin to discuss or compare notes on this election; as far as he is concerned, the fact that Labour Party won in some declared results, should forestall a challenge to an election that was overwhelmed by irregularities, from top to bottom. This has no basis, in reason.
“We totally reject the narrative that the Obi/Datti ticket did not win the required spread of 25% in enough states, or that we did not win enough votes in the Northern States.”
It added, “The evidence is consistent that the same brazen alteration of votes, and non transmission of polling booth results, occurred all across the country, including the Northern States.
“There is abundant evidence that the votes were systematically altered and reduced in these states, with the particular aim of denying our ticket its duly earned 25% and higher, in those states.
“We advise the APC and its members to get ready to give cogent reasons to the Election Tribunal, how, despite being roundly rejected in many key states at the polls, by Nigerians, it magically emerged winner in the election, through declaration, by Professor Mahmood Yakubu.
“We have cast-iron evidence from polling units across the country, to prove that we won overwhelmingly, and we will prove our case beyond any possible doubt.”
