The Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in last Saturday’s Presidential election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has send his heartfelt gratitude to Nigerians for trooping out en masse to perform their civic duty.
This was contained in a statement he personally issued on Wednesday following the outcome of the Presidential election in which he lost to the incumbent president, Muhammadu Buhari.
Atiku noted that the patriotism of Nigerians was heartwarming and affirmed his oft-repeated statement that Nigerians were brothers and sisters born from the womb of one mother, Nigeria.
He pointed out that it was clear that there were manifest and premeditated malpractices in many states which negated the results announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the outcome of the Presidential elections that took place on February 23, 2019.
According to him,” 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 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 Peoples 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 militarization of the electoral process is a disservice to our democracy and a throwback to the jackboot era of military dictatorship. In some areas of the country, such as, Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Imo states, troops deployed for the elections turned their guns on the very citizens they were meant to protect. This is condemnable and should not be associated with our electoral process in the future”.
Atiku who is also former Vice President of Nigeria while admitting that he is a democrat observed that there were democratic avenues available for him to present the truth to the nation and the watching world even as he said that already, many international observers had given their verdicts, which corroborate their observations saying “I am sure more will come in the coming hours and days”.
He continued,” If I had lost in a free and fair election, I would have called the victor within seconds of my being aware of his victory to offer not just my congratulations, but my services to help unite Nigeria by being a bridge between the North and the South.
“However, in my democratic struggles for the past three decades, I have never seen our democracy so debased as it was on Saturday, February 23, 2019. 2007 was a challenge, but President Yar’Adua was remorseful. In 2019, it is sad to see those who trampled on democracy thumping their noses down on the Nigerian people.
“Consequently, I hereby reject the result of the February 23, 2019 sham election and will be challenging it in court.
“I want to assure my supporters and the entire Nigerian people that together, we will not allow democracy to be emasculated.
“I hope and pray Nigerians will someday summon the courage to defend democracy. That is the only way we can move away from being the world headquarters for extreme poverty”.
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