Following a claim allegedly by a newspaper company owned by the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, ascribing leadership in Saturday’s election to him in three geopolitical zones, the Presidential Campaign Council of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has called on President Muhammadu Buhari and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to call him to order.
In a statement issued on Sunday by Dele Momodu, Director of Strategic Communications of the council, it described the publication as reckless.
The council pointed out that Tinubu is the only mainstream presidential candidate in the election whose base was decimated by the opposition, saying that its candidate, Atiku Abubakar, is the only one with national spread.
The statement noted how Tinubu tried to bully Buhari to abandon his cashless policy, noting that the APC flag-bearer however succeeded in intimidating the President to display his ballot paper confirming that he voted for him.
The statement reads, “Our attention has just been drawn to the recklessly dangerous publication unilaterally awarding an impossible victory to the APC Presidential candidate Chief Bola Tinubu. The said newspaper is owned by Tinubu.
“Only yesterday, we all saw how thugs of the APC Chieftains and his allies took over the streets of Lagos burning ballot boxes and documents and generally misbehaving in other to disenfranchise the determined electorates.
“Despite all of these ugly attempts at stealing victory, the APC suffered its worst cataclysmic loss in most of the polling centres in Lagos. The same happened in Kano.
“Incapable of ever being sobered by the crushing humiliation in its traditional territories, we woke up this morning to read about the pathetic and illegal lies cooked up by the Tinubu media goons.
“Tinubu remains the only mainstream candidate whose home base of South West was decimated by opposition parties in Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Oyo, Osun and Ekiti.
“Most of the Northern Governors he also expected to help him garner votes in the Northern regions failed spectacularly to deliver the badly needed votes. He failed in the South East and South-South.
“The only candidate with the national spread is the PDP Presidential candidate, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar. But as a responsible citizen and respected statesman, he will never rush to the media to claim his well-deserved victory and glory after a long and torturous journey.
“We hereby call on INEC and the Federal Government to cage these troublesome APC Chieftains. We have all been witnesses to their unruly behaviour as they did everything to bully and blackmail President Muhammadu Buhari in order to chicken out of the currency swap policy.
“We also witnessed how they practically intimidated the President to the extent of forcing him to publicly display who he voted for in yesterday’s elections. It was quite a bizarre, unfortunate and unprecedented scene to watch.
“We advise the President to find the courage to call the bluff of these desperate politicians who feel they can buy the whole of Nigeria.”
Credit Nigeria Tribune