As claims and counter-claim continue to trail last weekend’s presidential and NASS polls, National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, Adams Oshiomhole has stated that INEC connived with the Akwa Ibom state government to rig Senator Godswill Akpabio out.
Speaking at a press conference on Thursday in Abuja, he said the electoral umpire deliberately employed government officials as election agents with instructions to deliver victory to PDP candidates.
Oshiomhole said elections in Akwa Ibom state were not close to free and fair, stating that the APC has evidence of altered figures of senatorial election results that affected the former Minority leader of the Nigerian Senate.
His words, “Akpabio was rigged in the last week’s elections. How would one explain altered figures against Akpabio which we have in our custody?
“The Independent National Electoral Commission in Akwa Ibom employed Akwa Ibom state officials as electoral officers who manipulated figures against opponents.
“They keep manipulating and adjusting figures until they are satisfied that Akpabio was defeated before submitting results to INEC,” he claimed.
Oshiomhole further revealed that APC has already petitioned INEC, expressing optimism that with time, justice would prevail in the matter.
He also took a swipe at Atiku, as he stressed that Atiku and the PDP were never committed to the peace accord, accusing them of only being interested in being winners.
According to him: “I think it is arrogance for Atiku to think that our future is tied to his Presidency. Atiku is destined never to be President of Nigeria and I ask you to review his character. Leadership is about character.
“Atiku’s desperation is so obvious. He is so desperate that in 2003, he challenged his own boss, Obasanjo. He decamped to join ACN and we offered him the ticket and he lost the election and returned to PDP.
“He contested again and lost the nomination and because he has only his interest at heart, he decamped again from PDP.
“He joined us in Lagos and rolled out the dollars but we voted for Buhari as our candidate. He knew that he cannot defeat Buhari in the primary and went back to the PDP.
“Do you think that such a political rolling stone, does he think that Nigerians are so insincere as to think that a man who is not stable and whose interest is about himself will be a possible candidate to be elected?
“What makes him have that sense of entitlement that he must be President of Nigeria? You cannot deny anyone the right to dispute the outcome of an election however free and fair.
“So, we hope and we are looking forward to meeting Atiku Abubakar in court. We might also choose to also cross petition because there were many areas we can dispute.
“In Adamawa state, he had already lost the election before he did some magic that gave him that narrow victory in Adamawa state.”
(Daily Post/The Nation)
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