Linus Aleke, Abuja
The opposition People Democratic Party (PDP), Monday barricaded the entrance to the Headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to register is grievances, over the flawed presidential election that throw up the candidate of the rulling All Progressive Congress (APC), Senator Bola Tinubu as the eventual winner and the president – elect.
The protest was led by PDP Presidential Candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, his running mate and Governor of Delta State, Ifeanyi Okowa, the National Chairman of PDP, Senator Iyorchia Ayu, Director General PDP Campaign Council and Governor of Sokoto, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal, former Minister of Aviation, Osita Benjamin Chidoka, amongst other party chieftains and supporters.
The protesting procession which commenced at Legacy House in Maitama, is populated by supporters who adorn themselves on black and black robe and were carrying placards with varied inscription to convey their grievances in short phrases.
Some of the inscription on the placards which added colour to the peaceful protest included but not limited to “Nigeria not for sale; Nigeria has lost confidence in INEC, Our votes must count, No more cheating, INEC keep your promise to Nigeria, INEC release the real result, Democracy must not be murdered, and the will of the people was dashed by INEC”.
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A chieftain of the party and former Minister of Aviation, Mr. Osita Benjamin Chidoka told ThisNigeria that PDP is protesting in front of INEC Headquarters in Abuja to register its displeasure over the flawed elections, so as to forestall future occurrence.
According to him, “On the 11th of March, Nigerians are going to go back to the polls and we want to understand from INEC this system failure that we saw on the day of the presidential election. Whether we are going to witness it again on the 11th of March or not. Will Nigeria be able to vote without using BVAS for accreditation and when they finish voting would it happen that results will not be uploaded from the polling units. Will it also happen that the results would be collated, which had not been uploaded and which Nigerians do not have visibility to”.
Corroborating the above view, the spokesperson of Atiku Presidential Campaign Council, Mr. Daniel Bwala, said the presidential election was marred with irregularities, hence the need to draw global attention to the abnormalities of INEC.
He said: “We are here today as law abiding citizens of Nigeria to express our grievances and to protest the recently concluded broadway show or otherwise called the presidential election in Nigeria. This elections was marred with irregularities, this elections was witnessed by international observers, where all of them unanimously in a joint statement confirmed what we already know. That this election was marred with irregularities, this election was manipulated, there were voter suppression in many places, there was violent in different part of the country”.
He noted that the PDP is protesting to tell the world that the party is aggrieved about the outcome of the polls.
He said, the candidate of the PDP represent millions of Nigerians who wish for better governance, who pray for a nation where equal opportunity will be open to everyone.
“A nation where the people will be happy to enjoy governance through restructuring. All of the things we sold in our campaign, the electorates believed it, they accepted it and they assimilated it and they came out in their millions to vote and unfortunately even though we have evidence on the duplicate result sheets given to our agents at the polling units. In the INEC national collation the numbers they tabulated didn’t just add up,” he concluded.
