Atiku leads PDP protest against Feb. 25 poll, call for cancellation

“You were there during the collation when Yakubu promised Nigerians that he would review the collation. Has he reviewed it? “We are asking him to review the collation just as he has promised. He should review it,”

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Atiku Abubakar and Presidential Flagbearer of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Monday led officials of the party on a protest to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Abuja over the Feb. 25 election

Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and Presidential Flagbearer of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Monday led officials of the party on a protest to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Abuja over the February 25 election.

BRANDPOWER reports that some of the officials included PDP National Chairman, Sen. Iyorchia Ayu and National Working Committee members.

Ayu presented a party protest letter to INEC, calling for the cancellation of the election in which the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Sen. Bola Tinubu was declared winner.

He urged INEC to conduct a credible election that would be acceptable to all.
“On behalf of the people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the teeming members of the PDP, we present this protest letter to INEC, addresed to the Commission Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu.

“We do not accept the charades of what has been presented to Nigeria people as election and what has been declared.

“We, therefore call on INEC not only to cancel the election but to re-conduct a very credible election, not only to Nigerians but also the international community,” Ayu said.

Receiving the letter, the INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Mr Festus Okoye, commended the party for a peaceful protest, promising to submit the letter to the appropriate authorities for necessary action.

“I have received this letter on behalf of the commission, if there are remedial issues to be dealt with, we are going to deal with those remedial issues.

This commission is for the Nigeria people. Our allegiance is for the Federal Republic of Nigeria. “This commission does not have allegiance to any political party or candidate, our allegiance is to the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” Okoye said.

BRANDPOWER reports that the protesters who were dressed in black, carried placards with different inscriptions such as “INEC is corrupt”, “It is time for change”, “INEC releases the real results”, “enough is enough”, “Mahmood Yakubu resign now”.

Speaking, Kola Ologbondiyan, spokesperson for Atiku/Okowa Campaign Organisation said that the demand of the party was that Mahmood should fulfill the promise he made to Nigerians at the collation centre that he was going to review the election results.

“You were there during the collation when Yakubu promised Nigerians that he would review the collation. Has he reviewed it? “We are asking him to review the collation just as he has promised. He should review it,” Ologbondiyan.

Asked why the protest after the party had accepted to challenge the election outcome in court, Ologbondiyan said that the party had the right to expose to the world the illegality of INEC under Yakubu.

“We have a right to this pretest and we are expressing it to the world to know that what Yakubu has done is a total disregard to the constitution and all the electoral status in Nigeria.
“That is what we are expressing and we have the right to it. As a corporate citizen to protest and we are protesting it,” he said.

INEC had declared Tinubu as the winner of the presidential poll after scoring 8,794,726 votes, the highest of all the candidates, thus meeting the first constitutional requirement to be declared the winner.

INEC also said that he scored over 25 percent of the votes cast in 30 states, more than the 24 states constitutionally required. Atiku Abubakar came second with 6,984,520 votes.

While presenting the protest letter, Ayu maintained that INEC must cancel the election and conduct a fresh one “that will be respected not only by Nigerians but by the whole international community”.

BRANDPOWER reports that Ayu and Okowa had earlier indicated that they will lead other stalwarts and members of the party in a protest at the headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Abuja on Monday against the outcome of the presidential election.

INEC declared Bola Tinubu, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as the winner of the election and President-elect of the presidential poll held on February 25.

Tinubu polled 8,794,726 votes to defeat Atiku Abubakar of the PDP who had 6,984,520 votes, and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) who secured 6,101,533 votes.

But Atiku and the PDP rejected the declaration of Tinubu as the president-elect, saying the election was marred with infractions and would challenge it in court.

The opposition party, in what seems as one of the ways to challenge the result thereafter notified its members that a protest would be staged in front of INEC’s building. The protest has thus been carried out today.

WIKE MOCKS ATIKU

Meanwhile, Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike on Monday took a swipe at former Vice President Atiku Abubakar who led leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on a demonstration at the national headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to protest the outcome of the February 25 presidential election.

Channels reports that Wike, who spoke at the commissioning of Chokocho-Igbodo Road in the Etche Local Government Area of Rivers State, said he warned the leadership of the party over its insistence that northerners hold onto the presidential ticket and national chairmanship seat of the party.

“While other people are demonstrating, I am commissioning projects. I have not gone to do demonstration; my own is to commission projects and make my people happy,” Wike said.

The Rivers governor also commended the people for voting a southern President in the just-concluded elections.

According to him, Section 7(3)(c) of the PDP constitution recognised zoning and rotational presidency but the leadership of the party contravened the provisions of the party’s regulations.

“I owe nobody any apology at all. I am one of the apostles, one of those who stood firm that power must rotate to the South. This is for equity, this is for fairness and this is for justice.

“Whether you voted for Labour, I have no problem with you. Whether you voted for APC, I have no problem with you. That is what we have argued for: that the north has had it for eight years. Therefore the south must be there for eight years,” he said.

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