Atiku Won 2023 Presidential Poll, PDP Replies Lai Mohammed

Chuks Okocha in Abuja

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), yesterday,  insisted  that its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, won the February 25, 2023 presidential election as shown from the actual votes cast at the polling units across the country.

The PDP described the subjudice claim by the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, that the opposition lost the election, as yet another in the series of attempts by the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led federal government to bully and blackmail the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal.

In a statement by the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Hon. Debo Ologunagba, the PDP said, Nigerians were invited to note that Mohammed’s comment came after President Muhammadu Buhari made similar subjudice comment in his widely condemned attempt to justify the rigging of the presidential election, which case is pending before the Tribunal.

According to the PDP, “It is indeed appalling that Lai Mohammed could attempt to defend the outcome of a fraudulently conducted election, which has been adjudged as the worst in the history of elections in Nigeria and which has attracted nationwide and international outrage against the Buhari administration.
“By stating that President Buhari deserved ‘accolades’ for conducting a globally condemned presidential election and describing well-meaning Nigerians as ‘shameless sore losers’, Lai Mohammed has further confirmed the complicity of the Buhari administration, in which he serves as mouthpiece, in one of the most reprehensible election swindles in the history of democracy.”

The PDP, however, said it was not surprised that Mohammed would continue in the trajectory of the Buhari-led APC administration, which is notorious for lying, deceit and falsehood.

Ologunagba said Nigerians were aware that by the authentic results obtained from the Polling Units, Atiku and not the APC candidate met all the conditions stipulated for winning presidential election, the reason the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) refused to transmit directly and announce results as obtained from the polling units as required by law.

The PDP, for the umpteenth time, cautioned the APC and the Buhari-led government against its attempts to bully the judiciary in the handling of the presidential election petitions before the Tribunal.

“The facts of the rigging of the February 25, 2023 Presidential election are well known to Nigerians and the PDP will not relent until it reclaims its mandate at the Tribunal,” it stated.