Atiku Abubakar, the People’s Democratic Party’s Presidential Candidate, claims that Nigeria’s February 25 presidential election was flawed and neither free nor fair.
Atiku, speaking at the Shehu Musa Yar’adua Centre in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, said the 2023 presidential election offered Nigeria and the people the best chance for a fresh start, especially with a legal framework in the 2022 Electoral Act and the BVAS technology.
Atiku said “the dreams and aspirations of Nigerians who braced all the challenges to go and cast their votes on Saturday, 25th of February, 2023, were shattered by the conduct of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, which failed to live up to expectations. The weekend election was neither free nor fair.
“Preliminary assessments indicate that it is the worst conducted elections since the return to democratic rule. The manipulation and fraud that attended this election was unprecedented in the history of our nation. I can still not understand why the electoral umpire was in such a hurry to conclude the collation and announcement of the result, given the number of complaints of irregularities of the bypassing of the BVAS, failure of uploading to the IREV, and unprecedented cancellations and disenfranchisement of millions of voters in breach of the Electoral Act and the commission’s own guidelines. It was indeed a rape of democracy” Atiku noted.
“I have come to the conclusion that the processes and outcome of the Presidential and National Assembly elections last Saturday were grossly flawed and as such must be challenged,” Atiku said after consulting with party leaders and Nigerians from various walks of life. This has been confirmed by both domestic and international observers. I want to believe that this was not the legacy that President Muhammadu Buhari had promised”.
He explained that President Buhari still has time to make amends for the sake of the country and future generations, as well as to ensure his legacy.
