Rivers state Governor Nyesom Wike has said the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, lost at the poll because the party ignored the G5 governors.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) last Wednesday declared the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, winner of the election having polled a total of 8,794,726 votes to defeat Atiku, his closest rival, who scored 6,984,520 votes, while Peter Obi of the Labour Party polled 6,101,533 votes.
Governor Wike said it was too early in the day for people to begin to forget that the eventual fate that befell PDP was avoidable if the national leadership of the party had heeded the several appeals and demands on them to adopt the principle of equity, fairness and justice as they approached the presidential election.
In the G5 group are Wike as leader, Samuel Ortom of Benue state, Seyi Makinde of Oyo, Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu state.
At the end of the presidential election, the APC won in Rivers, Oyo and Benue while the LP clinched victory in the whole of the South-east states, including Enugu and Abia.
Specifically, Ugwuanyi lost his senatorial bid on PDP’s platform to LP candidate, Okechukwu Ezea during the last polls.
Wike taunts Atiku
Speaking Monday at Okomoko Community Field while inaugurating the Chokocho-Igbodo Road in Etche local government area, Governor Wike said it is now settled that the presidency had returned to the South because the North is completing its 8 years at the presidency.
He said: “Our constitution says in Section 7: 3c that there shall be rotation of public offices; of appointive and elective. You took the chairmanship of the party. You took the presidential candidate slot of the party and we came to you, saying this is against the spirit of our constitution.
“Give us back the chairmanship, you said no, that you must have it all because you have won. I said be careful then, and nobody wants to remember all those things when we were shouting.”
Governor Wike stated that while others were demonstrating against the outcome of the presidential elections, he’s in Rivers inaugurating projects and satisfying the development needs of the people.
The governor explained that there was no time he ever criticised the duo of LP’s Obi or the APC’s Tinubu during the campaigns.
Governor Wike said, rather, he campaigned unapologetically to true lovers of Nigeria to vote for a southern presidential candidate in the spirit of equity, fairness and justice.
“That is what we have argued for, that the North has had it for 8 years, therefore the South should have it for 8 years. So, I am not here to persecute anybody.
“As far as I am concerned, anybody from the South is where I stand. That is what we agreed as Integrity Group, that we must make sure that the South emerges as the next president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” he said.
Speaking further, the governor said as a backer and advocate of equity and fairness and justice, he had no problem with anybody who either voted for the LP or the APC because the outcome of the presidential election is that Nigeria has a southerner elected as the next president.
Taking a swipe at the APC governorship candidate in Rivers state, the governor said Tonye Cole lacks the character to steer the affairs of the state.
“People are terrible in politics, those who cannot stand for what they say. When I say something, you can go home and sleep, knowing that I said something.
“Look at the APC candidate (Tonye Cole), he posted on social media, congratulating Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, but within one hour, he pulled it out. Is that a man? Is that character? I don’t understand. This is a man who all of them, both their leader, even some of them who claimed they’re in PDP, all of them in this State, voted against a southern presidency.
“They voted Atiku Abubakar. The same people now turned around to say, support me (Tonye Cole), it’s only Wike that did not support Obi.
“Look at people who don’t have character. Are they the ones you want as governor of Rivers State? I have character, go to anywhere, I have character. There are characters who you cannot trust,” Wike said.
Commenting on the Chokocho-Igbodo road, Governor Wike said it was one of the several promises he made to Etche people and fulfilled.
While awarding the contract for the construction of the 3km long section of the road to connect Etche to Imo state, Governor Wike urged the people to reciprocate the development they have benefitted by voting for Sir Siminialayi Fubara, the PDP gubernatorial candidate for continuity.
Governor Wike urged the people of the state to ignore manipulated audio and video being circulated on social media by some depraved minds to mislead unsuspecting general public.
Providing the description of the project, Rivers state Commissioner for Works, Dr. George-Kelly Dakorinima Alabo said the 27.12 km long road, awarded in December 2021, was completed within the agreed 12 months.
Atiku leads protest
But true to their words, the PDP presidential candidate, Director General PDP Campaign Council and Sokoto state Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, National Chairman, Senator Iyorchia Ayu and other stakeholders Monday stormed the INEC headquarters in Abuja, demanding the cancellation of the February 25 presidential election.
PDP insisted the presidential election was grossly flawed and demanded a new credible poll.
Atiku, Ayu, Tambuwal, party stakeholders and supporters were seen carrying placards with such inscriptions; ‘Our Vote Must Count’, ‘INEC don’t murder our democracy’, ‘We know the winner’, ‘End of the road for bad governance’, ‘it is time for change’, ‘INEC is subverting the will of the People’, and ‘this is election, not selection’, among others.
In a protest letter addressed to the INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmoud Yakubu, and signed by Ayu, the party’s national chairman and National Secretary, Senator Samuel N. Anyanwu, dated 6th March, 2023, the party lamented that despite raising the hopes of Nigerians the process was grossly flawed.
PDP said there was an abysmal failure on INEC’s part to honor its promises on the deployment of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and uploading of results on INEC Result Viewing (IREV).
The party insisted that the conduct and outcome of the presidential and National Assembly elections fell below acceptable standards.
The letter reads in part “the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) detests and condemns this absurdity and brazen rape of our electoral process. Nigeria should be seen as a country governed by the rule of law and it is a responsibility we collectively owe our citizens desirous of entrenching true democratic principles and the rule of law. In this circumstance, we call on all Nigerians both home and in the Diaspora to stand firmly in defense of their rights, votes, and stolen mandate.
“In consideration of the foregoing, the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) acting on the mandate of the Nigerian electorate has resolved as follows; To reject and declare as unacceptable the outcome, announcement, and declaration of the Presidential election results.
“To call on your commission to suspend the ongoing transmission of the Polling Units results to your Servers which is in complete breach of the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022.
“To warn your commission against a repeat of the experiences of the February 25, election in the coming Governorship and State Assembly elections of March 11, 2023. Any attempt to manipulate the electoral process will be vehemently resisted.
“To call on all Nigerians to be co-partners in defense of our democracy, votes, the rule of law, and their Rights to freely choose the candidates of their choice.
“We are writing to you because we want to bring our grievances and demands formally to your attention for necessary action.
“Furthermore, to inform you and your commission that, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) together with the ordinary and aggrieved masses of our dear country will no longer tolerate any act in defiance of our electoral processes and laws. We feel pained at the outcome of the February 25, 2023 election and the provocative declaration your commission made against the will of the people”.
Earlier in his remarks, Ayu had called on INEC to cancel the election and conduct a fresh one.
Ayu said: “We demand the cancellation of this election and that a new credible election be conducted.”
INEC speaks
Receiving the protest letter from Ayu in company of other commissioners, INEC National Commissioner and Chairman Voter Education and Publicity, Festus Okoye, assured that the electoral umpire would address remedial issues.
Okoye said: “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 Nigerian people. Our allegiance is to 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.”
Other PDP leaders at the protest included former PDP National Chairman Prince Uche Secondus, former Adamawa state Governor Boni Haruna, former Kano state Governor Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, Daniel Bwala and Senator Dino Melaye among others.
PDP protest a new low – APC
Commenting on the visit, the APC Presidential Campaign Council described the PDP protest to INEC as a ‘new low.’
In a statement Monday by the APC PCC’s Director Media & Publicity, Bayo Onanuga, the campaign council said instead of Atiku and his party to wisely spend their time gathering the evidences they hoped to present before the courts, they were busy dancing ‘skelewu’ on the streets and causing traffic nuisance to residents of the Federal Capital Territory going to work on a Monday morning.
Onanuga said INEC Headquarters is not a court where Atiku’s prayers can be answered.
“With Atiku staging a theatre of the absurd, we fail to see how a march to INEC by a scanty crowd will provide any victory window for him and his fragmented PDP. The only recourse open to Atiku after the electoral umpire declared Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the President-elect, is the Election Petition Tribunal.
“We don’t expect a former Vice President of Nigeria, a statesman and a Presidential candidate to be so jobless as to have time to disturb public peace over an electoral outcome he had already said he would challenge in court.
“We want to admonish Alhaji Atiku to respect his age and the high office of the Vice Presidency of Nigeria he once occupied. He should stop being teleguided by Dino Melaye, who disclosed scandalously that N400 billion was wasted on the election, which was clear at the outset that Atiku was bound to lose.
“Atiku should avoid being misdirected by other court jesters in his party, who continued to campaign after the election, still spewing their inanities against the President-elect. They are mere comic characters in a travelling theatre group.
“No amount of theatrical display will give him succour. The honourable and lawful path to take is for Atiku to get his lawyers to plead his case in court. He should stop throwing tantrums like a baby whose candy was taken away over an election he clearly lost due to his own poor judgment; mismanagement of his own party and violation of power rotational arrangement between the North and the South. The PDP presidential candidate dug his own grave, in his last election and, absurdly, he is trying to rewrite the script of his own utter failure.
“We wonder how Atiku and his party hoped to win, when he himself admitted that Peter Obi, his running mate in 2019, ran away with traditional PDP votes from the South-East and South-South.
“It is preposterous that while Atiku is disturbing public peace, chanting phantom electoral victory, Peter Obi is making same claim. We think both men have embarrassed themselves enough and it is time they both resolved who between them is the supposed winner that will challenge our party’s victory in court,” the statement said.
The Council advised the PDP and its presidential candidate “to retire honourably from politics and move to his abode in Dubai. At 77 in November, Atiku does not have age on his side again. He has participated in his last election and hopefully, he has learnt worthy lessons, never to place his selfish interest above party and established principles in his party and the polity.”
