The All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate Bola Tinubu lost the poll, according to the Labour Party, which has criticised President Buhari for his stand on the results of the February 25 presidential election.
Buhari’s “position on the outcome of the said election was false, untrue, and it is not a true reflection of what played out during the election,” according to LP’s Acting National Secretary Obiorah Ifoh, who made the claim in a statement on Sunday.
Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the newly elected president of the APC, “didn’t win the election because the said election, particularly the presidential election, was manipulated and rigged beyond belief,” the statement said. Therefore, contrary to what Mr. President suggested, political parties did not lose the election as a result of arrogance or complacency. APC working with several government organisations.
The statement read: “There are several reasons why opposition political parties lost the 2023 election; the first is that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC snubbed the electoral act wherein it failed to upload the result from the polling unit in real time as promised and in disregard to the laws guiding the election. The INEC by so doing, created room for that election to be rigged.”
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“Let me remind Mr. President of the magnitude of violence, ballot snuffing, snatching and manipulations of results from the collation centres using security agencies, which included police, army amongst others as well as thugs to manipulate elections in favour of the ruling party.
“Recently, we saw the show of shame that took place in Adamawa. What played out in Adamawa was a microcosm of what played out all over the states during the February 25 and March 18 elections in Nigeria. Why the case of Adamawa was given huge publicity and attention was because of the involvement of an INEC National commissioner who was a victim, thus forcing INEC to take prompt action.
“From Lagos to Rivers, from north to southern parts of the country, all over, violence characterised that election. In most cases, some agents and supporters were not allowed access to the polling units.
“All of these put together, do they amount to overconfidence and complacency on the part of the opposition party? It shows that the President who promised Nigerians that he was going to give Nigerians a free, fair and credible election simply failed in his duty in giving Nigerians the election they deserved.
“The 2023 general election is the worst election the country ever had since the current republic; since 1999 to date. The 2023 general election is the worst ever as reported by virtually all the international observers and communities. In fact, the election took Nigeria back to the days of the First and Second Republics where political thugs, where violence and thuggery characterised politics and elections.
“So Mr. President is completely wrong. I believe that he was ill-advised. It was erroneous for him to say that opposition parties lost the election because of overconfidence. In fact, Labour Party won the election but it was brazenly stolen by APC. Mr. President is aware of the fact that APC did not win the election and that it was stolen.”
Recall that President Buhari was quoted as saying on Thursday that “overconfidence, complacency, and poor tactical decisions created problems for the opposition in the election” in a statement by his media adviser, Garba Shehu.
The Peoples Democratic Party had already requested that the international community put a visa restriction on the Nigerian leader, therefore the President’s remarks have not been warmly received by the opposition parties.
