By Bode Olagoke and Emeka Nze, Abuja with agency
The federal government Tuesday cautioned the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr Peter Obi, against inciting people to violence over the outcome of the presidential elections.
Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed said this in Washington DC during his official engagements with some international media organisations.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the minister is in Washington to engage with international media organisations and think-tanks on the just concluded 2023 polls.
NAN also reports that the minister had so far engaged respectively with the “Washington Post”, Voice of America, Associated Press and Foreign Policy Magazine.
During the respective interactions with the media organisations, the minister said it was wrong for Obi on one breadth to seek redress in court over the outcome of the polls and on another breadth incitehh people to violence.
“Obi and his Vice, Datti Ahmed cannot be threatening Nigerians that if the President-elect, Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is sworn in on May 29, it will be the end of democracy in Nigeria.
“This is treason. You cannot be inviting insurrection, and this is what they are doing. Obi’s statement is that of a desperate person, he is not the democrat that he claimed to be.
“A democrat should not believe in democracy only when he wins the election,” he said.
The minister said in challenging the election results, there was no pathway to victory for either Obi or Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
According to the minister, both Obi and Atiku failed to meet the constitutional requirements to be declared as president.
“The constitution has stringent criteria for anybody who wants to be president of the country. Not only must he have the plurality of vote cast in an election, he must also have scored one-quarter of votes cast in at least 25 states.
“Only the President-elect met the criteria by scoring 8.79 million votes and having one-quarter of all the votes cast in 29 states of the federation,” he said.
The minister said Atiku, who came second with 6.9 million votes was only able to make one-quarter of the votes cast in 21 states.
He said Obi came third with 5.8 million votes but won only one-quarter of votes cast in 15 states.
“You cannot win an election in a poll where you came to a distant third position and failed to meet constitutional requirements.
“Peter Obi, while complaining of fraud has not disowned his victory in Lagos,” he said.
Elaborating on his mission to the U.S., the minister said he was there to correct the negative narratives being promoted by naysayers and opposition on the election.
He said the opposition, having lost in the election, was alleging fraud, calling for its cancellation and constitution of the interim government.
“We have come here to balance that skewed narratives and to tell the world unambiguously that the just concluded general elections in Nigeria is the fairest, most transparent and authentic in the history of Nigeria.
“The election is the fairest and credible because of the introduction of the Bimodal Voters Verification System (BVAS) which I regard as a game changer.
“BVAS technology had helped to weed out ghost and illegal voters, eliminate multiple voting and return sanity to the elections,” the minister further said.
Relying on the INEC report, the minister said BVAS, during the polls, worked 97 per cent giving unparalleled credibility to the elections.
Obi replies
But in his reaction, Obi, the LP presidential candidate, said the campaign he ran prior to the 2023 general election was not based on ethnicity or religion.
Obi, in a statement Tuesday, described the minister’s accusation as part of campaigns of calumny against his person.
Obi said: “It is most unfortunate that these consistent efforts to portray me quite contrary to what I am, and my core values, is coming from such high quarters. Minister Lai accusing me of stoking insurrection is totally malicious and fictitious.
“I have never discussed or encouraged anyone to undermine the Nigerian state; I have never sponsored or preached any action against the Nigerian state. Those initiating these actions have increasingly used their official positions and agents to make false allegations against me.
“I am on record as always, advocating for peace and issue-based campaign and never campaigned based on ethnicity or religion. I am committed to due process, and presently seeking redress in the court.”
The former Anambra state governor urged those engaged “in this demarketing process to stop presenting Nigeria in such bad light.”
APC PCC slams LP
In a related development, the Directorate of Agro and Commodities, Presidential Campaigns Council (PCC) of the ruling APC, has accused the LP of celebrating ‘stolen mandate’ in the South-east, urging the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) to ensure total recovery.
The PCC in conjunction with Coalition for Good Governance and Change Initiative, Center for Leadership Legacy International, and the United Arewa Movement for Peace and Good Governance, specifically asked Senator Abdullahi Adamu-led NWC to step in and ensure that Hon. Nkeiruka Onyejeocha’s stolen mandate was recovered.
Addressing a news conference Tuesday in Abuja, Secretary, APC Directorates of Agro & Commodities, Retson Tedheke, expressed disappointment that nobody in the party was speaking for candidates allegedly rigged out through votes suppression, intimidation of voters and obvious manipulation of elections results, “especially our women who have sacrificed so much for the party and gave their best to it during the campaigns.
“For many frontline and dedicated member of the party, who contested for various elective positions but were denied victory arising from rigging by the opposition political parties, we are asking that the party stand strong for them, to ensure that they reclaim their stolen mandates without further delay, especially, in the prosecution of their cases before the Election Petition Tribunal.
“In the next few weeks, we will detail some of the shocking irregularities, abuses and fraud that we have uncovered with concrete evidence during the presidential and national assembly elections.
“Most outstanding case in view is that of House of Representatives Deputy Chief Whip, Hon Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, representing Isikwato/Umunneochi federal constituency. It’s on record that Hon Nkeiruka Onyejeocha was the only APC stalwart in Abia State, who openly identified with Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and stood on the podium to campaign along with him during the presidential across the region. While we don’t want to go to some of the issues she openly told Asiwaju during his campaign in the region, which eventually came to pass, we want to say that the party must stand up and reclaim all its stolen mandates in the country.
“We like to put it on record that the Labour Party (LP) for Isiukwato/Umunneochi federal constituency, Amaobi Ogacandidateh, was not a bonafide member of LP at the time of the party primary, because he left the APC and joined the PDP in March 19, 2022.
“On June 4, 2022, he joined LP and contested the party primaries four days later, June 8. By contesting the primary in June 8, it explains clearly that he was not a member of any political party according to the provisions of the law and Electoral Act, 2022 (as amended).”
Tedheke described “the election of the Isiukwuato/ Umunneochi federal constituency as a sham and charade and if allowed to stand, would have thwarted the resolve of the majority of the people of the constituency and set a bad precedent for future elections.
“While this is not the only basis for which she is challenging the results the Isiukwuato-Umunneochi Federal Constituency election of 25 February, we must also state it clear evidence that electoral infractions have been compiled to validate our claims.
“Our prayers therefore, are: the APC should and must make every move to reclaim its stolen mandates, even if it means setting up a committee from the existing Presidential Campaign Council to review what transpired during the elections.
“While Hon. Nkeiruka Onyejeocha has so far approached the court reclaim to challenge what members of her constituency have termed robbery hatched against her, we maintain that the Leadership of the APC at all levels rise to the occasion to retrieve her mandate and that of many others who contested on the platform but were robbed of their mandates through widespread malpractices, vote suppression and falsification of results as witnessed in the South East.”
