Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja
The Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has challenged the presidential candidate of Labour Party, Peter Obi to meet the ruling party in court if he was aggrieved.
The Director, Media and Publicity, Bayo Onanuga in a statement issued Thursday said the ruling party welcomed the decision of Obi to seek redress in court as an aggrieved party if he was convinced of the evidence of electoral frauds he would present before the tribunal as alleged.
He noted that going to court was part of the electoral process, adding that it was the most decent, statesmanlike and civilised course of action to take.
Onanuga said the APC saluted the decision, saying it was surely better than calling supporters to the streets and instigating social unrest.
He noted: “Before Mr. Obi goes to court, we consider it necessary to challenge some specific claims in his press address. Contrary to his statement, it is not true that the election held 25 February was not free and fair. “
Onanuga maintained that the 2023 election was one of the most transparent and peaceful elections in the history of Nigeria, adding that it was because the process was credible that made it possible for Obi to record the over six million votes contrary to pre-election forecasts.
According to him, That Labour Party and Mr. Obi surprised bookmakers by winning in Lagos State, Nasarawa, Plateau, Delta and Edo where there are sitting governors of either the All Progressives Congress or the Peoples Democratic Party. Those governors have entrenched political machinery. That Obi won attests to the credibility of the election process. In those states, most of the sitting governors contested elections to go to the Senate and lost to little known candidates of the Labour Party.
Onanuga pointed out that Labour Party also swept the entire five South East states under the control of either All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) or APC.
The APC campaign said it believed Obi contradicted himself and exposed himself to public ridicule by suggesting that the election was only credible in states and places his party won.
Onanuga said: “We need to forewarn Mr. Obi, that when he gets to court he should be prepared to tell the world how his party won over 90% of votes in his region of South East while other parties got almost nothing. We have evidence of voters suppression, intimidation and harassment in the South East, especially of those who came out to vote for our party.
“Also when Mr. Obi gets to court, he will have to convince the court with his allegation of rigging in over 40,000 polling units across the country especially in North West and North East where his party had no party agents and did not sign result sheets as required by law. It is our assumption that Labour Party will enlist PDP agents to prove its fraud claims since it is an affiliate of PDP. “
Onanuga insisted that Obi didn’t win the presidential election and could not have won under any circumstances.
He said this was because he had no path to winning a national election in a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society like Nigeria where a candidate running in a national election must appeal to the cross-section of our pluralistic society.
Onanuga pointed out that Obi anchored his presidential campaign on the failed strategy of ethnicity and religion, divisive and dangerous politics that has hobbled the progress of our country for decades.
He said Obi all through his campaign presented himself as the candidate of the Christians and the Church, who wanted to help ‘take back their country” from the Nigerian Muslims.
Onanuga added: “His campaign also ran on the engine of ethnicity, inflaming strong Igbo sentiments. He also sought to cash in on the supposed youth discontent in Nigeria, as fuelled by the Endsars protest in 2020.
“Mr. Obi and his party knew why they failed. They knew they had no path to victory with their negative and dangerous campaign.
“We owe Labour Party and Peter Obi the blunt truth: They failed in the election. No amount of red-herring and misinformation about the election and the outcome can obliterate this reality.”
