Romanus Ugwu and From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja

The verbal exchanges between the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over the outcome of last Saturday’s presidential poll continued yesterday with Adams Oshiomhole, national chairman of the ruling party, describing the main opposition candidate, Atiku Abubakar, as a man not destined to rule Nigeria.

Speaking during a world media briefing in Abuja, the former governor of Edo State, said apart from portraying himself as an unreliable politician who fought his boss in desperation to impose himself on Nigerians, Atiku cannot impose himself on Nigerians.

He informed Atiku that the ruling party was ready to meet him in court.

Oshiomhole, however, admitted that the election was not perfect just like every other election elsewhere in the world and urged relevant security agents to identify and arrest hoodlums that unleashed mayhem on defenceless electorate and bring them to book.

While lamenting the desperation of the PDP presidential candidate, the ruling party boss said he had not come to terms on why the former vice president would conclude that only his emergence would make last weekend’s presidential election credible.

He revealed that APC has  formally written to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to formally lodge complaint about the massive rigging against the APC in Akwa Ibom State, alleging that the party’s senatorial candidate in Akwa Ibom the state, Godswill Akpabio, was rigged out through the collaborative  efforts between the state government and the Resident Electoral Commissioner who, he claimed recruited PDP members as ad hoc staff.

“Rather than Atiku thinking that rigging has come to stay and could not understand why the numbers can’t add up in the absence of massive rigging, he should be reminded that the essence of the collective effort that has been made and the intervention of genuine friends of Nigeria has been to try to improve the electoral process such that rigging can be eliminated or reduced to tolerable level.

“As I speak, we have petition that we have written to INEC on how we were rigged out in Akwa Ibom State and it is interesting that it is the PDP that is complaining about rigging in Akwa Ibom State. How do you explain that INEC cancelled so many units in several states in other to be able to declare PDP candidates winners? That was how Senator Akpabio was rigged out in Akwa Ibom State.

“When the National Peace Committee invited political parties to commit themselves to peace and to pledge to accepting the outcome of the results, you will recall that the PDP and their candidate were absent at the first meeting. Following public outcry and pressure from their friends, they reluctantly went  to sign the peace accord. So, from day one, Atiku made up his mind that unless he wins, the election is not free and fair and that it will only be free and fair if he is returned as winner. Then, we ask the question, what is the value of the peace accord? 

“Atiku also alleged that the economy lost N85 billion on hearing that President Buhari won the election. That is twisting the facts. When Atiku start talking about his irrevocable commitment to privatise and sell NNPC, many people wondered aloud whether he has not already collected deposit, especially when he says even if he was going to die.

“Was he going to rule Nigeria against our will because democracy does not end at voting. Citizens must hold their leaders accountable for their policy choices. So, if those depositors see that it will not be business as usual and decided to take their flight, we don’t even want them to come back. Nigeria need genuine investors who have faith in our country with long term interest.

“I think it is arrogance for Atiku to think that our future is tied to his Presidency. Atiku is destined never to be President of Nigeria and I ask you to review his character. Leadership is about character. Atiku’s desperation is so obvious. He is so desperate that in 2003, he challenged his own boss, Obasanjo. He decamped to join ACN and we offered him the ticket and he lost the election and returned to PDP.

“He contested again and lost the nomination and because he has only his interest at heart, he decamped again from PDP. He joined us in Lagos and rolled out the dollars, but we voted for Buhari as our candidate. He knew that he cannot defeat Buhari in the primary and went back to the PDP. Do you think that such a political rolling stone, does he think that Nigerians are so insincere as to think that a man who is not stable and whose interest is about himself will be a possible candidate to be elected?

“What makes him have that sense of entitlement that he must be president of Nigeria? You cannot deny anyone the right to dispute the outcome of an election, however, free and fair. So, we hope and we are looking forward to meeting Atiku Abubakar in court. We might also choose to also cross petition because there were many areas we can dispute. In Adamawa sState, he had already lost the election before he did some magic that gave him that narrow victory in Adamawa state,” he said.

Oshiomhole congratulated Nigerians for defending democracy and for celebrating democracy as they did.

“We are proud as a people that all those who thought that last Saturday was going to be a war have realised that election is not another word for war. It is a day to celebrate democracy and the only day in democracy in which everybody is equal.”

PDP replies Oshiomhole

Meanwhile, PDP has replied Oshiomhole, saying the wishes of Nigerians at the February 23 presidential poll was to elect Atiku. 

He alleged that the APC used the apparatus of government to rig the poll and stole the PDP mandate.

The opposition party spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, noted that the mood of the nation since Wednesday, when INEC declared President Buhari winner showed the president was not the choice of the people.

According to the PDP spokesman, “it is not for the factional chairman of APC, Adams Oshiomhole, to tell Nigerians who is electable or not. He told the whole world that he will deliver 100 per cent vote for President Muhammadu Buhari in his ward. What did that tell you? That is pure rigging because there is nowhere in the whole world that everybody in a ward will be in one political party. It showed manifestly how much rigging Oshiomhoke is capable of.

“Is it not strange that a sitting national chairman, it doesn’t matter whether he is a factional or not, cannot deliver his state for his party, in spite of the fact that he has a sitting governor? Will it not bother him? That is a question that should bother his mind.

“If truly the APC is a political party, that should bother them that they have a national chairman, who woefully failed to deliver his state to his party.”

Ologbondiyan added: “I don’t think anybody takes Adams Oshiomhole serious in this country going by the manner he conducted primaries in his party, the internal democracy in his party,  going by the manner his presidential candidate was pelted in Ogun State with stones and water.It is rather unfortunate. In PDP, we do not take Adams Oshiomhole and his utterances serious.

“It is manifestly clear to Nigerians what happened on February 23. The mood of the nation since the announcement of that result by Mahmood Yakubu, does not put anyone in doubt as to the wishes of Nigerians. The wishes of Nigerians was to get Atiku Abubakar elected. And now that they have used the instrument of power to rig us out, we will take the matter to the next level.”

Ologbondiyan said the comment by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, that the Presidency was not bothered by the decision of Atiku and the PDP to challenge the result of the presidential poll in court, showed that members of the ruling party were not democrats.

He said if the APC leaders were democrats and understood democratic processes, they would have waited for the court to adjudicate on the election dispute before making comments.

The PDP spokesman noted that the resolve of the party and its presidential candidate to subject all the alleged infractions that characterised the poll to trial in the law court remained unshaken.

“For us in the PDP, we  nurtured democracy from 1999 to 2015. Those who are flaunting now and calling themselves pro-democracy people do not  know the process of our democratic  nation.

“It is not a surprise to us that they are already claiming to know what will happen in the court because they do not understand the  process.

“What they are indirectly telling us is  that  they are in charge of the court. But whether they are in charge of the court or not, the PDP and the people’s  candidate, Atiku Abubakar, have taken a decision to take all the discrepancies in the election,  subject them to constitutionalism. Whether it is right in an election for a state to bring out children to vote? Whether it is normal to suppress voters in the strongholds of the PDP? Whether it is accepted within our electoral  act to remove votes won by the PDP, cancel  them and increase the vote of the APC? We will subject all these things to trial in  the court of law. And whatever decision the court comes up with, that will be known  to Nigerians,” Ologbondiyan stated.

APC legal team dares Atiku

The APC Legal Directorate Presidential Campaign Council has vowed to match Atiku strength for strength in court.

In a statement signed by Deputy Director Legal, Mamman Lawan Yusufari, after an emergency meeting, yesterday, the legal team affirmed its readiness to defend the victory of President Buhari with all the legal expertise at its disposal. 

“We congratulate President Muhammadu Buhari for winning the 2019 presidential election and thanks Nigerians for their overwhelming support. We commend the presidential candidates, political parties and their support groups for their general respect for the law in the campaign activities, 

“We commend INEC for conducting the presidential and National Assembly elections in substantial compliance with the law, condemn the few cases of violence in some parts of the country and call on the appropriate authorities to deal with the perpetrators in accordance with the law. 

“We call on interested parties who are not satisfied with the results of the elections to challenge same by following due process of the law, and affirms its readiness to defend the resounding victory of President Muhammadu Buhari with all the legal expertise at its disposal,” the team said.

INEC had declared Buhari winner and issued him certificate of return after scoring 15,191,847 votes to defeat his major opponent who polled 11,262,978 in the February 23 presidential poll. The APC candidate led in 19 states while Atiku of the PDP won in 17 and the FCT.

But Atiku rejected the result and vowed to approach the court to retrieve his stolen mandate.