The President-elect, Bola Tinubu, says there was no pathway to victory for the presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) in the February 25 election.
Tinubu said he was the only candidate who met the requirements of the constitution to win the presidential poll, noting that Atiku, Obi, and the presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Rabiu Kwankwaso, did not have the requisite national acceptability.
The President-elect said this through his representatives led by the spokesperson of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council, Festus Keyamo, at the National Press Centre in Washington D.C., United States, on Wednesday, April 12.
Other members of the group were the Minister of Youths and Sports, Sunday Dare, and Assistant Principal Spokesperson, Anjuri Ngelale.
Speaking, Keyamo, who is also the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, said the departure of Obi and Kwankwaso from the PDP was a major setback for the main opposition party, adding that the 2023 presidential election was devoid of rigging.
He stated: “About eight months to the elections, the main opposition, the PDP, suffered some major setbacks. Its Vice-Presidential Candidate in 2019, Mr. Peter Obi moved to the Labour Party with his supporters, mainly from his region of origin, the South-East.
“Another of the Party’s main pillar of support in the North-West, Alhaji Musa Kwakwanso moved to the New Nigerian People’s Party (NNPP), taking with him a chunk of the party’s supporters in that region.
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“Five out of the 14 Governors of the PDP, publicly announced they would not be campaigning for or supporting its Presidential Candidate (Alhaji Atiku Abubakar).
“Meanwhile, the ruling party remained one huge, indivisible entity with no departure of any of its elected officials or public dissent from them. It was in this state of affairs that all the parties went into the elections.
“Contrary to the false outcry by the opposition, the main technological device, Bi-modal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) did not fail on the election day. All the local and international observers scored the use of BVAS very high, with one local body called YIAGA, working in coalition with the EU and other International Observers, saying it recorded 88% success in all the polling units it monitored.
“The Nigeria Bar Association also issued its report saying only 8 per cent of voters were not satisfied with the process on that day. The portal that the opposition made so much noise about, IREV, is just a viewing portal, which has nothing to do with accreditation or verification of voters or even the counting or recording of votes.
“Our Constitution requires a Presidential candidate to secure the highest number of votes and score at least one-quarter of the votes in two-thirds of the States of the Federation which includes the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
“Only Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu met these requirements especially that of the spread (he scored 25 per cent and above in 29 States), even though all 3 top candidates won 12 States each.
“The candidate of the PDP scored 25 per cent and above in just 21 States, falling short of the 24 States required and the candidate of the Labour Party scored 25 per cent and above in 15 States plus the Federal Capital Territory, making it 16 States.
“There was just no pathway to victory for these candidates who did not have the requisite national acceptability. So, how tenable is the claim of rigging the elections? We see none,” the APC campaign spokesman noted.
Keyamo further stated that the 2023 general election was credible as it threw up some upsets in the APC’s settled demography, saying for the first time, 20 incumbent governors lost their states, mostly those of the ruling party.
The minister added that seven governors who sought elections into the Senate also failed to scale through.
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“This has never happened in the history of Nigeria. In addition, the President-Elect lost his home State (Lagos State); the sitting President lost his home State (Katsina State); the Director-General of the Campaign lost his home State (Plateau State); the ruling Party Chairman lost his home State (Nassarawa State); the Chairman of the ruling Party’s Governor Forum lost his home State (Kebbi State) and the ruling party lost some of its traditional strongholds like Yobe State, Kaduna State, and Kano State. All these go to show that it was a keenly contested election and one of the most credible in our history.
“The reports of some irregularities and violence in some polling units could not have affected the overall outcome of the elections too. There are 176,974 polling units in Nigeria and infractions and violence were recorded in less than one percent of these units.
“Our laws have provided for settled means by which election disputes are resolved. The aggrieved parties have taken advantage of this remedy by filing their cases in Court. We urge them to have faith in our judicial system and desist from spreading false tales about our election across the world,” Keyamo added.
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