WE WILL MEET MR. PETER OBI IN COURT

admin March 3, 2023

PRESS STATEMENT

We watched with dismay today’s press conference addressed by the Presidential candidate of Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi where he made very weird and wild claims about the outcome of the just concluded Presidential and National Assembly elections, an election in which he emerged a second runner up, according to the result declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission.

We welcome the decision of Mr. Obi to seek redress in court as an aggrieved party if he is convinced of the evidences of electoral frauds he will present before the tribunal as alleged.

Going to court is part of the electoral process and it is the most decent, statesmanlike and civilised course of action to take. We salute the decision. It is surely better than calling supporters to the streets and instigating social unrest.

Before Mr. Obi goes to court, we consider it necessary to challenge some specific claims in his press address.

Contrary to his statement, it is not true that the election held 25 February was not free and fair.

The 2023 election is one of the most transparent and peaceful elections in the history of Nigeria. It is because the process was credible that made it possible for Mr. Obi’s Labour Party to record the over six million votes it got contrary to pre-election forecast.

That Labour Party and Mr. Obi surprised bookmakers by winning in Lagos State, Nasarawa, Plateau, Delta and Edo where there are sitting governors of either the All Progressives Congress or the Peoples Democratic Party. Those governors have entrenched political machinery. That Obi won attests to the credibility of the election process. In those states, most of the sitting governors contested election to go to the Senate and lost to little known candidates of Labour Party.

The Labour Party also swept the entire five South East states under the control of either APGA, PDP or APC.

We believe that the Labour Party Presidential Candidate contradicted himself and exposed himself to public ridicule by suggesting that the election was only credible in states and places his party won.

We need us to forewarn Mr. Obi, that when he gets to court he should be prepared to tell the world how his party won over 90% of votes in his region of South East while other parties got almost nothing. We have evidence of voters suppression, intimidation and harassment in South East especially of those who came out to vote for our party.

Also when Mr. Obi gets to court, he will have to convince the court with his allegation of rigging in over 40,000 polling units across the country especially in North West and North East where his party had no party agents and did not sign result sheets as required by law. It is our assumption that Labour Party will enlist PDP agents to prove its fraud claims since it is an affiliate of PDP.

We want to state again for the umpteenth time that Mr. Obi didn’t win the presidential election and could not have won under any circumstances. This is because he had no path to winning a national election in a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society like Nigeria where a candidate running in a national election must appeal to the cross-section of our pluralistic society.

Mr. Obi anchored his presidential campaign on the failed strategy of ethnicity and religion, the divisive and dangerous politics that has hobbled the progress of our country for decades.

Nigerians simply rejected an ethnic and religious bigot through their ballots.

Mr. Obi all through his campaign presented himself as the candidate of the Christians and the Church, who wanted to help ‘take back their country” from the Nigerian Muslims.

His campaign also ran on the engine of ethnicity, inflaming strong Igbo sentiments. He also sought to cash in on the supposed youth discontent in Nigeria, as fuelled by the ENDSARS protest in 2020.

While Labour Party positioned its candidate as the harvester of the youth votes, its planners forgot that Nigeria does not have a homogeneous and monolithic youth population that can deliver bloc vote to any candidate.

All the major parties that contested the election also have strong youth appeal and supporters.

The lesson in Mr. Obi’s defeat in the election is that no politician in Nigeria can win a presidential race by being a sectional and an anointed candidate of any religion.

God created our country in a way to make it impossible for any part of the country to exist without the other. The framers of our constitution also worked to bind our country together with provisions that will make it impossible for a section of the country and any religion to have political domination over the other.

What this means is that any aspiring politician for the presidency of Nigeria must have a Pan Nigeria appeal and strong support and must be embraced by adherents of other religions.

Mr. Obi and his party knew why they failed. They knew they had no path to victory with their negative and dangerous campaign.

We owe Labour Party and Peter Obi the blunt truth: They failed in the election. No amount of red-herring and misinformation about the election and the outcome can obliterate this reality.

The President-Elect who was the candidate of our party won a Pan Nigeria mandate in a free, fair and credible election.

He is ready and prepared to assume office so he can serve the people of our country with sincerity and honour.

Bayo Onanuga

Director, Media & Publicity

APC Presidential Campaign Council

March 3, 2023

March 2, 2023

Press Statement

PDP Rejects the Declaration and Return of APC Presidential Candidate as President-Elect

The National Working Committee (NWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on behalf of all members of the PDP, rejects in its entirety the declaration and return of the Presidential Candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as President-elect by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The PDP demands that INEC immediately withdraws the Certificate of Return issued to the Presidential Candidate of the APC and cancel the Presidential election declaration in line with its powers under Section 65 of the Electoral Act 2022.

The Party insists that INEC in declaring the APC Presidential Candidate as winner, acted contrary to the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), the Electoral Act 2022 and the INEC Guidelines and Regulations for the conduct of the 2023 Presidential election.

The PDP holds that its Presidential Candidate, Atiku Abubakar clearly won the February 25, 2023 Presidential election having evidently scored the majority of lawful votes cast by Nigerians at the Polling Units.

Sadly, the election was marred by deliberate malpractices including the non-use of the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) and INEC’s refusal/failure to transmit directly the results from Polling Units to its Server/Website in flagrant violation of Section 60 (4)(b) of the Electoral Act 2022.

This violation of the Electoral Act by INEC as attested to by political parties, voters, Nigerians of all walks of life as well as local and International Observers, paved the way for the alteration, falsification, switching of results and allocation of figures in favour of the APC.

Nigerians can recall how on Friday, November 11, 2022, INEC through its National Commissioner and Chairman of INEC’ Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, assured that results will be transmitted directly from the Polling Units to ensure the integrity and credibility of election results in Nigeria.

In his words, “Our attention has been drawn to reports in a section of the media of alleged plans by the Commission to rig the 2023 General Election by abandoning the direct and real time electronic upload of Polling Unit results to INEC Result Viewing (IReV) Portal…

“The Commission has repeatedly reassured Nigerians that it will transmit results directly from the Polling Units as we witnessed in Ekiti and Osun State Governorship elections…. The IReV is one of the innovations introduced by the Commission to ensure the integrity and credibility of election results in Nigeria. It is therefore inconceivable that the Commission will turn around and undermine its own innovations. The Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and IReV have come to stay for voter accreditation and uploading of polling unit results in real-time in Nigeria”.

By refusing therefore to transmit directly the results from the Polling Units, INEC violated the Electoral Act and its Rules and Regulation, compromised the process and marred the integrity and credibility of the election results.

The PDP therefore asserts that consequent upon the violation by INEC of Section 60 (4) of the Electoral Act, 2022 and its Rules and Guidelines on the election, the results announced by the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, having not been earlier transmitted DIRECTLY from the Polling Units before the announcement are ultra vires, of no consequence and cannot stand.

Consequently, our Party and its Presidential Candidate have commenced action for legal redress to reclaim our victory in the 2023 Presidential election.

We appeal to our numerous supporters in Nigeria and across the world to remain calm, resilient, resolute and steadfast in the defence of democracy and the victory of our Party in the 2023 Presidential elections.

Signed:

Hon. Debo Ologunagba

National Publicity Secretary

PRESIDENT BUHARI TOURS RUINS OF MAIDUGURI MONDAY MARKET AS FG DONATES RELIEF ITEMS TO VICTIMS

BLESSINGS OF THE BUHARI PRESIDENCY, BY SHEHU OF BORNO

President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday toured the ruins of Maiduguri Monday Market, destroyed by fire recently, commiserating with the government and people of the State on the unfortunate incident.

The President was also at the palace of the Shehu of Borno, Alhaji Abubakar El-Kanemi, to register his profound condolences to indigenes of the State who lost property and means of livelihood in the disaster.

The President visited the market, still smouldering five days after, with Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno State, Vice President-elect Kashim Shettima, members of the Federal Executive Council and some eminent citizens of the State.

The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajiya Sadiya Farouq, told the President that assessment on the level of damage is still ongoing.

She announced that the Federal government has provided immediate relief materials to the victims of the fire incident, including 20,000 bags of rice, 20,000 bags of maize and condiments.

The Minister pledged that the Ministry, in collaboration with the Borno State Government, would provide building materials to rebuild the market.

“After the assessment, the Ministry will submit a full report to Mr President to seek special intervention,” she said.

Prof Zulum said the market, which was built in the 1970s, with no fewer than 20,000 beneficiaries was completely destroyed by the fire.

Acknowledging the support by the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, he said the State government has provided an immediate support of N1 billion.

“Even the N1 billion, if the traders share N50,000 each, I do not think that will be enough for them, ” he said.

The Chairman of the Market Association, Awaji Bukar, expressed deep appreciation to the President for the visit, appealing for more support from the Federal Government.

Earlier at the palace of the Shehu of Borno, President Buhari said he was also in the State to commission projects executed by the Prof Zulum led administration.

“I am delighted to be here with the Shehu and the good people of Borno State, to commiserate with you on the unfortunate Monday Market fire incident.

“I’m pleased to be back to commission projects and be part of the unstoppable development drive of this great state.

“I’m equally happy that the state continues to strive for the normalization of its affairs following the enormous successes achieved in tackling the problem of security that had reached worrying heights in the past.

“I like to put on record my deep and sincere appreciation of the love and support of the people of Borno State. I don’t take this for granted.

“May Allah increase His blessings upon the Shehu and his people. God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria,’’ he wrote in the Visitor’s notebook.

The Shehu of Borno thanked the President for overseeing the return of peace and normalcy to the State.

Lauding the improved security situation in the State, Alhaji El-Kanemi declared that “no single local government area in the state is under the control of Boko Haram terrorists.”

He said the President has successfully carried out his mission in office and that as far as Borno State is concerned, he had done far more than anyone had expected.

He expressed their appreciation to the President for his sympathies following the devastating fire that consumed the entire Monday Market and went on state the blessings of the Buhari administration in its eight years of office to the State:

“When you came in, we had more than two million Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs mostly women and children roaming the streets in Maiduguri. We had no power for two years; we had no GSM. We had no outgoing roads except that to Kano. Boko Haram had taken over the other roads.

“We had no Airport as the one here was damaged and therefore no commercial flights. Seventeen of the 27 local government councils were under Boko Haram. Today, no single local government area is under their control.

”You changed everything by transferring the Command-and-Control Center of the anti- terrorism war to this place. We thank you for standing with us in our trying times. Together, we remain with you, in or out of office.”

Garba Shehu

Senior Special Assistant to the President

(Media & Publicity)

March 2, 2023

PRESIDENT BUHARI CELEBRATES FOREMOST JOURNALIST, LIAD TELLA, AT 75

President Muhammadu Buhari shares the joy of the milestone with renowned journalist, Alhaji Liad Tella, who turns 75 March 3, 2023.

The President salutes the over five decades Tella has invested in journalism, rising to the top of his career as Deputy Editor of National Concord, and Editor-in-Chief of The Monitor Newspapers.

He also celebrates Alhaji Telly’s contribution to knowledge as Senior Research Fellow, Department of Mass Communication, University of Ilorin, and his commitment to Islam, being one of the founding fathers of Muslim Students Society of Nigeria (MSSN), and a Federal Commissioner at the National Hajj Commission, for many years.

President Buhari rejoices with the Tella family, the media community, especially the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE), and the Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN), and wishes the Asiwaju Musulumi of Iwo land longer life in good health, to further serve God, society, and humanity at large.

Femi Adesina

Special Adviser to the President

(Media and Publicity)

March 2, 2023

MEDIAGATE NIGERIA: DISTRIBUTION OF FACT-BASED INFORMATION

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