The All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council (APC PCC) has described former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s call to cancel Saturday’s elections in areas where the exercise was disrupted as a coup against democracy.
WITHIN NIGERIA had reported that Obasanjo, in a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday alleged that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had compromised the conduct of the elections.
He said the results being declared by INEC do not correspond with the wish of the Nigerian people.
Responding to Obasanjo’s allegations, the Special Adviser, Media, Communications and Public Affairs, APC PCC, Dele Alake, said Obasanjo’s moves were to derail the nation’s democratic process.
The statement reads, “Our attention has been drawn to a press statement by former President Olusegun Obasanjo in which he was virtually calling for a truncation of the ongoing electoral process and a cancellation of already conducted elections on the basis of frivolous, unfounded and baseless allegations by politicians who are sore losers and have no respect for democratic values.
“Obasanjo repeated without the slightest iota of evidence rumours he had picked up that the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System had been compromised and that the results of elections being announced are fraudulent. It is tragic that a former President who ought to be a statesman in comportment and speech will recklessly seek to endanger and derail our democratic process for utterly selfish, egoistic and malicious reasons. He offers not a single credible piece of evidence to prove his laughable and ridiculous allegations against INEC and the credibility of the ongoing process.”
Tinubu’s campaign team further stated that it was aware that Obasanjo was not an impartial and disinterested party in this election, making reference to the former president’s January 1 statement where “he had issued a characteristically lengthy epistle to Nigerians endorsing the candidacy of Mr Peter Obi and asking Nigerian youths to vote en masse for him.”
The statement added, “Of course our reaction was that the former President was entitled to his view and that the outcome of the elections would demonstrate if he had any electoral value. As fate would have it, Peter Obi was defeated even in Obasanjo’s own polling unit in Abeokuta in Ogun State. But it is now obvious that the only election Obasanjo will agree to being free, fair and credible is one that produces Obi as winner which is ridiculous.
“Is Obasanjo also querying the outcome of the presidential elections in Lagos or Delta where Obi won? If the outcome in Lagos won by Obi is free and credible, on what basis is he querying the outcome of the elections in other places? This is pure mischief and sheer hypocrisy. Obasanjo wants President Muhammadu Buhari to intervene in an undemocratic manner to truncate the ongoing political process just the way he did most shamelessness in the 2003 and 2007 elections widely described as the worst in our political history.”
The APC PCC said no true democrat must seek an abortion of the process just because he believed the elections were not going his way, noting that what “Obasanjo is subtly calling for in his nefarious statement is a coup against democracy and the constitution.”
The team, while urging that Obasanjo’s remarks should be condemned and ignored, said the constitution had stipulated processes for seeking redress against electoral malpractices in the past and had been tested several times and used to redress electoral injustice where such had been proven.
“Nigerians must reject Obasanjo’s dubious and hypocritical advice and stay strictly and firmly on the path of constitutionalism and democratic due process,” the statement added.