Atiku Abubakar has hailed the European Union Election Monitoring Group for stating in its report that the last election was, indeed, fraught with electoral irregularities and failed to meet the minimum standard of credibility.
He also lambasted President Bola Tinubu and
his spokesman, Dele Alake, for trying to discredit the report.
The former vice president, in a statement,
said even the dead knew that the last election lacked credibility and even the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had been unable to explain why
nearly five months after the election, it had refused to upload the full result
on its result viewing portal.
“Even primary school children who did not
vote know that INEC failed woefully and that Tinubu rigged the last election.
“The presidential election held on February
25, 2023 and yet as of July 2, 2023, the result of the election has not been
fully uploaded. This is despite the fact that this election was the most
expensive in the history of West Africa.
“How can an election in which the full
results have not been fully uploaded after nearly five months be described as
credible by any sane human being?”
He described as nonsensical, Alake’s claim
that the EU was a meddlesome interloper for discrediting the poll.
He said it was hypocritical of the Nigerian
government to receive millions of dollars from the EU as election fund and then
turn around to claim that the EU has no right to make comments on the election.
“The EU said last September that it budgeted
39 million euros for Nigeria’s 2023 election. Most of the funding went to INEC
as election support.
“The EU not only provided training for INEC
staff but also donated equipment for INEC to conduct the poll. So why would
Alake claim that the EU has no right to speak when it was the largest single
donor to INEC? Alake should rather be quiet rather than try to defend the
indefensible.”
Atiku further argued that the results in
states like Rivers showed that the election was far from credible.
He said it was tragic that Tinubu was
planning on rewarding former governor Nyesom Wike with a ministerial portfolio
despite the accusations of rigging levelled against him as well as a pending
petition against the former governor which has attracted nearly 300,000 votes.
“The presidential election in Rivers State
was clearly rigged as evidenced by what INEC has uploaded on IREV. So far,
nearly 300,000 Nigerians have signed a petition on change.org demanding visa
bans against Wike.
“Tinubu is now on the verge of appointing
Wike as a minister as a reward for that disgraceful election. What a shame. And
this is the character who claimed to have fought for the actualisation of June
12?”
Atiku called on the United States and the
United Kingdom to speed up the process of imposing visa bans on election
riggers.
He admonished them to also reveal the
identities of those implicated in election rigging, especially staff of INEC
and members of All Progressives Congress.
“The report of European Union Election
Observation Team like all other reports on the 2023 presidential election is
not different from the facts our legal team, led by Chris Uche, have placed
before their lordships at the presidential elections petitions court. We are
encouraged by the presence of the manifold brave and audacious men and women of
the Bench in our judiciary.
“We know that, very soon, those distinguished
and imperial dispensers of justice in our present day judiciary shall deliver a
judgment that will be pure as the driven snow and not tainted by gravies and or
bullied by coercion from characters with iniquitous power,” he said.
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