Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has explained why he rejected the result of the just concluded presidential election.
The former Vice President who described the exercise as a sham, however, said he would seek legal redress in law court.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had in the early hours of Wednesday, declared President Muhammadu Buhari winner of the election.
INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, said Buhari polled 15,191,847 votes to defeat his closest rival, Abubakar of the PDP who garnered 11,262,978 votes.
In a statement personally signed by Atiku on Wednesday, he stated that if the elections were free, fair and credible, he would have congratulated the President.
The election, he maintained, was marred with irregularities including militarisation of the process, manipulation of figures and disruption of the election in PDP strongholds.
“One obvious red flag is the statistical impossibility of states ravaged by the war on terror generating much higher voter turnouts than peaceful states. The suppressed votes in my strongholds are so apparent and amateurish, that I am ashamed as a Nigerian that such could be allowed to happen. How can total votes in Akwa-Ibom, for instance, be 50% less than what they were in 2015?
“Another glaring anomaly is the disruption of voting in strongholds of the Peoples Democratic Party in Lagos, Akwa-Ibom, Rivers and diverse other states, with the authorities doing little or nothing and in some cases facilitating these unfortunate situations. (See attached links to documentary evidences).
“The militarization of the electoral process is a disservice to our democracy and a throwback to the jackboot era of military dictatorship. In some areas of the country, such as, Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Imo states, troops deployed for the elections turned their guns on the very citizens they were meant to protect. This is condemnable and should not be associated with our electoral process in the future.
“I am a democrat and there are democratic avenues available to present the truth to the nation and the watching world. Already, many international observers have given their verdicts, which corroborate our observations. I am sure more will come in the coming hours and days,” he said.
OWEDE AGBAJILEKE, Abuja
