PARIS OLYMPIC GAMES
Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the Presidential Candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, his running mate, Delta Gov. Ifeanyi Okowa and other party chieftains on Monday in Abuja led a peaceful protest over what they called flawed February 25 presidential election.
Persecondnews correspondents who monitored the march from the “Legacy House” of the PDP Secretariat in Abuja to the INEC Headquarters at about 11.20am, report that youths and adults alike participated in the exercise.
The PDP is challenging the declaration of the All Progressives Congress candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the winner of the poll reportedly marred by malpractice and irregularities as well as non-compliance with the Electoral Act 2022 on the part of INEC for not uploading results into its sever.
On March 3, 2023, the Court of Appeal in Abuja had granted Atiku’s request to inspect electoral materials used in the conduct of the disputed presidential election.
Atiku ,who said all the provisions of the current electoral law were completely breached, declared:”All the provisions of the current electoral law have been completely contravened.”
He also hinted that the protest will continue for a very long time everyday since INEC was bent on announcing the results and paying deaf ears to the yearnings and complaints of the electorate and parties.
“INEC was not listening, they were bent on announcing this result and that’s why we are protesting.”
The former Vice-President also revealed that the protest does not stop the court process already instituted.
“They can go hand in hand, don’t we have rights to protest as Nigerians under the constitution? The fact that we are protesting doesn’t stop us from going to court.
“In fact, this protest is going to continue for a very very long time either everyday and every other day,” Atiku said.
Persecondnews earlier reported on March 2, 2023, that the Presidential Candidate of the PDP rejected the outcome of the election at a press conference in Abuja.
He said after due consultations with party bigwigs he came to a conclusion that the presidential election was grossly flawed and must be challenged.
He described the electoral process and outcome as a rape of democracy.
“It was indeed a rape of democracy. The weekend election was neither free nor fair. Preliminary assessments indicate that it is the worst conducted elections since the return to democratic rule.
“The manipulation and fraud that attended this election was unprecedented in the history of our nation.
“I can still not understand why the electoral umpire was in such a hurry to conclude collation and announcement of the result, given the number of complaints of irregularities of bypassing of the BVAS, failure of uploading to the IREV, and unprecedented cancellations and disenfranchisement of millions of voters in breach of the Electoral Act and the commission’s own guidelines. It was indeed a rape of democracy.
“Having consulted with leaders of our party and Nigerians from different walks of life, I have come to the conclusion that the processes and outcome of the Presidential and National Assembly election of last Saturday was grossly flawed in every material particular, and as such must be challenged,” Atiku said.
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