Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)’s presidential candidate in the 2023 election, has said that the election was the worst in Nigeria’s history.
Abubakar said this in a press briefing on Thursday evening. It was the first time he spoke after Saturday’s election.
“The dreams and aspirations of Nigerians who braced all the challenges to go and cast their votes on Saturday, the 25th of February 2023, were shattered by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) which failed woefully to live up to expectations,” he said.
“The weekend election was neither free nor fair. Preliminary assessment indicates that it is the worst conducted election since the return of democratic rule. The manipulation and fraud that attended this election were unprecedented in the history of our nation.”
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Abubakar probed the hurried collation process despite reports of errors and malpractice. He stated that the result had to be contested.
Abubakar claimed that he was more interested in the credibility of the election than the winner. He said that his contest was not about him but about the youth and the future of the country.
“This battle to right the wrongs of Saturday is not about me at all. It is not about me; it is about you and it is about the future of those of you who are seated here. It is about the future of Nigerian youths,” Abubakar said.
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Abubakar said that he knew that the election result had traumatised the Nigerian youth. He asked young Nigerians to be calm and then promised to challenge the election result whether it favoured him or not.
Abubakar came second with 6.9 million votes, just behind Bola Tinubu who had over 8 million votes, after INEC completed collation for the presidential election on Wednesday.
Peter Obi, the Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, also addressed the press on Thursday. Obi said that he was going to court to prove that his party won the 2023 presidential election.
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