Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has lost the right to call for the cancellation of this election having already taken sides through his endorsement of the presidential Candidate of the labour Party (LP) Peter Obi.
Special Adviser on Media and Communications Dele Alake made this declaration yesterday in Abuja.
Alake’s reaction was coming on the heels of Obasanjo’s allegations against the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of rigging and call for the cancellation of Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly elections; as well as the walkout by Dino Melaye and some party agents from the national Collation Center, who also alleged results falsifications, rigging and failure by the INEC to upload election results on its server.
According to Alake, Obasanjo is an interested party having publicly endorsed Obi on January 1, and therefore cannot call for the cancellation of the election results.
The APC, in the statement, reiterated that no individual or group under any guise should jump the protocol governing the announcement of the election results and allow the INEC to perform its constitutional duty.
Alake who referred to the Dino Melaye group as a gathering of anti-democratic forces said the APC has the strength, determination and the will to protect and defend this process and the soon-to-be-formally announced mandate freely given to our party and Presidential Candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and running mate, Senator Kashim Shettima.
“We are very well aware of the plan of the PDP and their Labour Party collaborators to heighten tension in the country and create general state of fear through their sponsored Television and Radio surrogates who continue to push false narratives about the general conduct of the election.
“We are also aware of the coordinated assault aimed at discrediting the whole electoral process and the integrity of INEC by their so-called paid and partisan agents who wear the toga of Election Observers.
The APC described Obasanjo’s call for election cancellation as “a failed attempt to scuttle the process through his unsolicited advice to President Muhammadu Buhari to cancel the election as part of the grand orchestration of many evil plots to truncate democracy in Nigeria.
According to the party, Saturday’s elections were credible and transparent., adding that international observers from the Commonwealth, ECOWAS, European Union and African Union observer missions had also adjudged the election as peaceful, free and fair whilst they identified areas of logistical improvements INEC should take into consideration in future elections.
Alake revealed that the election was replete with drama, adding that “we saw the APC presidential candidate, party chairman and PCC director-general, losing their home states to Labour Party. Our DG also lost his bid to the Senate.
“We have also seen how Governor Samuel Ortom, a Labour Party backer lost his state of Benue to the APC. He also lost his bid to the Senate to the APC candidate. The Benue APC Tsunami was triggered by our popular governorship candidate, Father Hyacinth Alia and the party leader, George Akume. In Taraba, we have also witnessed how Governor Darius Ishaku lost his senatorial election.
“With all these hills and valleys and dramas that characterized the election, how can anyone claim the election was rigged or not transparent.”
The APC, therefore, admonished politicians to be democratic, saying elections are meant to test a candidate’s acceptance or popularity, adding that a national election must actually be national in true outlook.
“Ethnic champions can’t go far as democracy is a game of numbers. Wherever a candidate has the critical numbers, he wins. Wherever he is deficient, he loses. We have seen all these scenarios at play in the weekend election.”
The APC, however, called on the INEC to hasten result announcement to quickly diffuse the current atmosphere of anxiety in the country, so that Nigerians can move on from this election circle with greater hope of prosperity which our candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu promised them during the electioneering campaign.
