By Marcus Ikechukwu
The National Working Committee (NWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Thursday, says it will the presidential mandate allegedly stolen by the All Progressive Congress (APC) candidate, Bola Tinubu.
Debo Ologunagba, national publicity secretary of the PDP in a statement on Thursday, said the party would start a legal battle to challenge the election result.
The party rejected the declaration of Tinu by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the winner of the election.
Ologunagba said that the PDP wants INEC to withdraw the certificate of return issued to Tinubu and cancel the presidential election in line with its powers under Section 65 of the Electoral Act 2022.
“The Party Insists that INEC, in declaring the APC Presidential Candidate as the winner, acted contrary to the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), the Electoral Act 2022, and the INEC Guidelines and Regulations for the conduct of the 2023 Presidential election,” the statement reads.
“The PDP holds that Its Presidential Candidate, Abubakar clearly won the Feb. 25 Presidential election, having evidently scored the majority of lawful votes cast by Nigerians at the Polling Units.
“Sadly, the election was marred by deliberate malpractices, including the non-use of the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) and INEC’s refusal/failure to transmit directly the results from Polling Units to its Server/Website in flagrant violation of Section 60 (4)(b) of the Electoral Act 2022.”
Ologunagba said that sadly, an alleged violation of the Electoral Act by INEC as attested to by political parties, voters, Nigerians of all walks of life as well as local and international observers, paved the way for the alteration, falsification, switching of results, and allocation of figures in favour of the APC.”
He recalled how on Friday, Nov. 11, 2022, INEC through its National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, assured that results would be transmitted directly from the Polling Units to ensure the integrity and credibility of election results in Nigeria.
“By refusing therefore to transmit directly the results from the Polling Units, INEC violated the Electoral Act and its Rules and Regulation compromised the process and marred the integrity and credibility of the election results.
“The PDP, therefore, asserts that consequent upon the violation by INEC of Section 60 (4) of the Electoral Act, 2022 and its Rules and Guidelines on the election, the results announced by the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, having not been earlier transmitted directly from the polling units before the announcement, are ultra vires, of no consequence and cannot stand.”
“Consequently, our party and its presidential candidate have commenced action for legal redress to reclaim our victory in the 2023 Presidential election.”
Ologunagba appealed to PDP supporters to remain calm, resilient, resolute, and steadfast in the defence of democracy.
