2023 Presidential Election: Atiku , Obi Lay Claim To Victory, Get Set For Legal Battle…I’m Ready For Them-Tinubu

Though the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had earlier in the week declared Asiwaju  Bola Tinubu of the APC as winner of the presidential election held on Saturday,25 February 2023, presidential candidates of the two major opposition parties; Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and Mr Peter Obi on Thursday laid claim to victory in the presidential election.

While Atiku, a one-time Vice President, was the PDP candidate, Obi, a former governor of Anambra state, was the Labour Party candidate.

Obi, who claimed that he won the presidential election in question, added that  he was ready to prove this in court.

He said the presidential election was controversial and programmed to deliver pre-determined results.

Obi  added that the election did not meet the necessary requirements and could not be adjudged credible submitting that Nigerians were robbed of their true choice.

He has therefore said he  would pursue justice through  legal means  and that he was ready to question the  election results until he proves his line of argument.

‘The election that we just witnessed had been conducted and the results announced as programmed. It is a clear deviation from electoral rules and guidelines contrary to what we were promised.

This election did not meet the minimum standard expected of a free, fair, transparent and credible election. It will go down as one of the most controversial elections ever conducted in Nigeria.

The good and hardworking people of Nigeria have again been robbed by our supposed leaders whom they trusted.

Let me reassure the good people of Nigeria that we will explore all legal and peaceful options to reclaim our mandate. We won the election and I will prove it to Nigerians’ he asserted.

Obi  also noted that the process through which people come into the office is far more fundamental and  more important than what they do (in office) thereafter.

‘It is my belief that if you must answer Your Excellency, the process through which you get into the office must be excellent.

We must now require that we do the right thing in order to generate the right confidence and moral authority to lead. As you know, the structure of society begins and gradually retrogresses when we act rascally and deliberately in the manipulation of rule of law and suppression of the will of the people’ he said.

The former Anambra state governor  said he had challenged several election results  in the past and  got judicial victory , he would therefore once again, take a legal action with the firm belief that he would get justice.

‘On this issue (presidential election) I am challenging the process. I will challenge this rascality for the future of the country.

The court exists for this and they have asked me to go to court and I will be going to court’ he said.

 ‘Please, be assured that this is not the end but the beginning of a journey for the birth of a new Nigeria.

Datti and I remain absolutely undaunted and deeply committed to the project of a new Nigeria that will be built on honesty, transparency, fairness, justice, and equity. All the above starts with the process’ he added,

Presiding over a press conference held at separate venue in Abuja,  Alhaji Atiku Abubakar also  described the 2023 presidential  election as the worst  in the country since 1999.

Atiku said the dreams and aspirations of Nigerians that voted on Saturday had been shattered because the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)  failed woefully in the conduct of the elections, calling what has happened a rape of Democracy.

Atiku  noted that having consulted with PDP leaders, he had gotten convinced  that the process was fraudulent and would be challenged by the party .

The battle to right the wrong, he noted,  ‘is not about him’ but ‘about Nigerians and the future of its young people’, adding that many Nigerians were traumatized by the outcome of the election.

‘It is my hope that the judiciary will redeem itself. At the end, it is not about who wins but the legitimacy of our democracy. We will not watch why the rights of Nigerians are taken from them’ he said.

APC Presidential Campaign Council had since responded to   the statements made by Obi and Atiku during the separate conferences they presided over in Abuja.

Director of Public Affairs and Chief Spokesman, Tinubu/Shettima Presidential Campaign Council, Mr Festus Keyamo SAN,  while  coming up with what he believed stood as causative factors of Atiku’s election loss also said the president-elect  had   gotten  ready for the legal battle.

‘Firstly, Atiku Abubakar breached the zoning principle within his own party by insisting on running for President when that was clearly against the mood of the nation; even after emerging as a candidate, the PDP itself continued to rub insult on the faces of southern leaders in the Party by insisting on keeping the position of National Chairman in the North.

This obviously led to the rebellion of the G-5 Governors and their subsequent sabotage of the PDP before the polls and at the polls by campaigning against Atiku’s candidacy. His failure to unite his party and manage this post-primaries fall-out was his eventual undoing.

Atiku’s bid for the Presidency this time around was dead on arrival when his inordinate ambition fractured his party into 3 parts, with Alhaji Rabiu Kwankwanso and Mr. Peter Obi breaking away to the NNPP and the Labour Party respectively.

 The massive loss he suffered in traditional PDP zones and States is a clear testament to this. One wonders, then, how he expected to have won the election. It is also comical to see that he claims victory at the polls together with Mr. Peter Obi with whom his party has been holding Press Conferences’ he said.

‘Atiku Abubakar’s decision to challenge the outcome of the results is welcome. We are prepared to meet his challenge, no matter the nature of the challenge, anywhere and anytime’ Keyamo added.

The  Campaign Council in separate statement by its  Director of Media and Publicity,  Mr Bayo Onanuga has also said   the party’s legal team would be ready  to meet  Mr Peter Obi in court.

‘Going to court is part of the electoral process and it is the most decent, statesman-like and civilized course of action to take. We salute this decision. It is surely better than calling supporters to the streets and instigating social unrest.

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 presidential election held on 25 February was not free and fair.

The 2023 presidential election is one of the most transparent and peaceful elections in the history of Nigeria. It is because the process was credible that made it possible for Mr Obi’s Labour Party to record the over six million votes it got contrary to the pre-election forecast.

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 APC or the PDP. The Labour Party also swept the entire five South East states under the control of either APGA, PDP or APC.

We believe that the Labour Party’s presidential candidate contradicted himself and exposed himself to public ridicule by suggesting that the election was only credible in states and places his party won.

We need us 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 voter 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 at over 40,000 polling places across the country, especially in the 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 the Labour Party will enlist PDP agents to prove its fraud claims since it is an affiliate of PDP.

The President-Elect, who was the candidate of our party, won a Pan- Nigeria mandate in a free, fair and credible election. He is ready and prepared to assume office so he can serve the people of our country with sincerity and honour’ the statement submitted- Team@orientactualmags.com Do you have any information you wish to share with us? Do you want us to cover your event or programme? Kindly send SMS to 08059100286, 09094171980. Thank you