After a challenge filed by the losers of the 2023 presidential election, the All Progressives Congress (APC) stated on Friday that it was prepared to defend the mandate of its candidate, Bola Tinubu, in court.
Recall that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidates, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP), have both requested permission from the Presidential Election Court (PEC) in Abuja to inspect the electoral materials as they seek to retrieve their allegedly stolen mandate.
The Labour Party candidate stated that they have proof to prove in court that the election on February 25th was rigged.
2023: Why Obi And Atiku Cannot Challenge INEC For Not Transmitting Results Electronically – Alake
In response to Obi and Atiku’s assertions, the APC Presidential Campaign Committee announced on Friday that it has formed a legal team to defend the mandate granted to the party and the President-elect, Tinubu, by Nigerians in last week’s hotly contested election.
According to newsmen, the ruling party’s campaign council declared this during a press conference in Abuja on Friday, March 3, in reaction to separate press conferences given by the candidates of the PDP and Labour Party on Thursday.
Festus Keyamo, the APC PCC’s spokesperson, stated that he was a member of the party’s legal staff.
Keyamo said, “As I am talking to you, we have constituted our legal team. We are going to court too. Let it not be that they are the only ones going to court. I am part of the legal team.”
Dele Alake, the APC PCC’s Special Advisor on Media and Communication, also spoke out, saying the dissatisfied presidential aspirants’ determination to contest Tinubu’s victory in court is a welcome notion.
APC Chieftain, Dele Alake Accuses Peter Obi of Giving False Statistics
He thanked the two oppositions for “opting for the rule of law,” after “the initial belligerent posture as they continue their baseless journey of chasing after a mirage.”
Alake said: “We must thank the two of them for finally opting for the rule of law as against the initial belligerent posture as they continue their baseless journey of chasing after a mirage.
“We must say, however, that listening to both Atiku and Obi yesterday left us in the APC family confounded. We understand that there has been an orchestrated campaign by the PDP and the LP acolytes in the media to discredit the presidential election.
“What we did not expect is that the two presidential candidates and, indeed, their political parties, would shamefully re-echo the puerile and unimaginative arguments that are being canvassed by political illiterates and mischief-makers who are crying wolf on social media.”
He stated that the accusation that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) did not employ the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) was incorrect and an attempt to denigrate Nigerians’ right to vote. Alake emphasized that the BVAS has accredited voters across Nigeria, including Atiku and Obi.
LATEST: Forgive Sunday Igboho – Gani Adams Begs Ooni, Alake, Governors
The APC leader went on to say that the legislation did not support the complaint over the electronic transfer of results. “Section 38 of the Electoral Act 2022, as referred to by the PDP and the LP, has nothing to do with the transmission of election results,” Alake stated. The transmission of results is dealt with in Section 60, Subsection 2 of the Act, and it is at the discretion of INEC. The Act contains no required provisions pertaining the transmission of result.
“In any case, the process of transmitting results from polling units, whether real-time, two days later or at any time, cannot in any way change the results that have been announced right after the counting in the presence of the parties’ agents and to the hearing of the voters. It is, therefore, nonsensical to insinuate that time variation in uploading results would cause a change in the figures.”
He stated that the presidential election produced extraordinary results and defied conventions, noting that the deployment and use of BVAS was the only reason the elections produced such weird outcomes and upsets in many situations.
The campaign council noted, “The loss of Katsina and Lagos to the PDP and the LP, respectively, were contrary to expectations. BVAS brought the intended credibility to voters’ accreditation such that many governors and well-established politicians lost elections in what should be safe bet areas.
Keyamo, Alake, Onanuga Get Fresh Appointments As APC Name Campaign DG
“The era of ghost-voting and stuffing of ballot boxes is gone. As the experience in the last governorship election in Osun State has shown, over-voting would automatically lead to outright cancellation of the results of the polling units based on the provision of the new Electoral Act.
“The same PDP that is trying to pull the wool across the face of Nigerians was the culprit in the Osun State governorship election. Did they try to do it this time, and it failed? Or did they do it in the areas they unexpectedly won? Did they have a grand plan to hack the INEC server if results were uploaded in real-time? Nigerians will soon find out.”
Follow us on Facebook
Post Disclaimer
The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the author and forum participants on this website do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of Anaedo Online or official policies of the Anaedo Online.