Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
President Muhammadu Buhari has said he expects the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar and his party to go to court if he was not satisfied with the presidential election in which he was declared the winner.
INEC said Buhari, polled a total of 15,191,847 to defeat Atiku who garnered 11,262,978 to place second in the poll.
When asked to react to the decision by the PDP and its presidential candidate, Abubakar to challenge the outcome of the February 23 presidential election, President Buhari replied: “I expect that to happen.”
Atiku while explaining his reasons to go to court, said there was a clear indication that there were manifest and premeditated malpractices in many states, a development he said negated the results announced.
Reviewing the entire process, he said: “One obvious red flag is the statistical impossibility of states ravaged by the war on terror generating much higher voter turnouts than peaceful states.
“The suppressed votes in my strongholds are so apparent and amateurish that I am ashamed as a Nigerian that such could be allowed to happen. How can the total votes in Akwa-Ibom, for instance, be 50% less than what they were in 2015?
“Another glaring anomaly is the disruption of voting in strongholds of the People’s Democratic Party in Lagos, Akwa-Ibom, Rivers and diverse other states, with the authorities doing little or nothing and in some cases facilitating these unfortunate situations.
“The militarisation of the electoral process is a disservice to our democracy and a throwback to the jackboot era of military dictatorship.”
Buhari and his wife, Aisha, cast their votes at the Kofar Baru 003 polling unit, Daura, Katsina State in the governorship and state Assembly elections.
On the flashpoints and reported cases of violence across the country, this week, and his advice to Nigerians on election day, Buhari said: “I will leave it to the law enforcement agencies especially the police because they have been meeting virtually on a 48-hour basis to make sure that they have identified the flash points, as you mentioned, wherever they are and make arrangements to counter them.”