BY SEGUN ADEBAYO, ABUJA – National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr Uche Secondus, has vowed that there is no going back on the legal option taken by the party to challenge results of the February 23 presidential election and reclaim its stolen mandate from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
He said that no amount of pressure from any quarter will dissuade the PDP and prevent it from approaching the court to contest what it judged as a manifestly skewed polls’ outcome.
However, the party has urged its teeming members and supporters nationwide not to despair, but remain steadfast and focused as justice will be served and victory assured at the Tribunal.
Speaking at a media briefing in Abuja on Friday, Secondus is certain that the election Tribunal would do justice to millions of Nigerians who voted overwhelmingly for the PDP’s candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar
According to him, “We will go to court. Nobody will stop us from going to court and bring out all of the facts both the international observers and some people have not seen.
Vowing that the PDP is determined to unearth incontrovertible facts about the electoral malfeasance at the court, the PDP Chairman said: “I believe that justice will be done at the court because, if we continue to suppress injustice and go sentimental, the country will continue to pile on gun powder that will explode one day.
“So much injustice has been done in this country and if we allow it and it continues to pile, nobody knows what will happen. So, that’s why we decided as good citizens and law-abiding and people who believe in rule of law that we will go.”
The National Chairman also said PDP is drawing strength from its presidential candidate who has continued to assure Nigerians that; “we shall triumph at the end because democracy has come to stay in this country and is staying by the grace of God.”
Secondus, who also spoke on the meeting between the General Abdulsalami Abubakar-led National Peace Committee (NPC), the PDP and its flag-bearer, Atiku Abubakar, however explained that no conditions were on the table
Mr Secondus said the Committee only wanted to hear directly from Atiku an the main opposition party their grievances about the elections, adding; “Initially, we were not to talk with them because a decision had been taken to go to court, but because of the personalities involved, we said ok, let’s just talk.
“There was no condition. There was no request of any condition. We made it clear that unless the injustices are addressed, there is no room for peace. It is only when you address the injustice that you can now sit down for peace.”
Giving insight on the party’s claims of militarisation of the presidential and National Assembly elections, particularly in the South South and South East geo-political zones, Secondus said it was the most potent strategy deployed by the APC to deprive PDP of victory at the polls.
The PDP Chairman blamed the ugly development for the alleged killings of innocent Nigerians and inhibition of voters, deliberately chased and scared away from freely exercising their electoral franchise
He also noted that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) record of voter turnout in the Saturday’s election regrettably dropped from 44 per cent witnessed in 2015 to a dismal 36 per cent.
Furthermore, he accused the military of repressing voters in PDP strongholds in the South, while at the same time supervising “a different abracadabra going on in some northern states, particularly in Kano, Yobe, Borno and Zamfara states where numbers refuse to add up.
Specifically listing Borno, Yobe and Zamfara as states where electoral fraud were most pronounced, Secondus said confirmed report indicate that “there was non-compliance in the use of Smart card reader as approved by INEC rules”.
“The same applies to cancelled votes. In Nasarawa state, over 115,000 votes cancelled, Kogi 79,000 votes, Plateau 30,000 votes indicating that these high incidences of vote cancellation were designed to suppress the margin of victory in PDP strongholds.”
The PDP Chairman therefore demanded that the Army should demonstrate total professionalism in their duties by staying away from election matters in line with existing Supreme Court judgment, even as he pleaded that security agencies, especially the Nigerian Army must be circumspect in their actions as they are not at war with the citizenry.
The party rose in a minute silence in honour of innocent Nigerians who lost their lives on election day and during the victory celebrations following INEC’s declaration of President Muhammadu Buhari as re-elected early on Wednesday, February 27, 2019.
