The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday described the claim by the minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, that the opposition lost the election as another attempt by the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led federal executive to bully and blackmail the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal.
The party stated this while insisting that its candidate, Atiku Abubakar, won the February 25, 2023 Presidential election. It claimed the actual votes cast at the Polling Units across the country proves this.
The national publicity secretary of PDP, Hon Debo Ologunagba, who reacted to Mohammed’s comment said it came after President Muhammadu Buhari made similar subjudiced comment in his “widely condemned attempt to justify the rigging of the Presidential election, which case is pending before the Tribunal.”
Ologunagba in a statement said it is 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.”
He added, “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 spokesman added that the party is not surprised that Mohammed will continue in the trajectory of the Buhari-led APC administration which he claimed is notorious for lying, deceit and falsehood.
“Nigerians are aware that by the authentic results obtained from the Polling Units, Atiku Abubakar and not the APC candidate met all the conditions stipulated for the winning of Presidential election; the reason the compromised 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 cautions the APC and the Buhari-led Federal Executive against its furtive attempts to bully the judiciary in the handling of the Presidential election petitions pending 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,” PDP spokesman said.
