The chairman of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Mr Adams Oshiomhole has said that the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Alhaji Abubakar Atiku is so politically unstable that only insane Nigerians could vote for him. “Nigerians are not insane to vote for a man who is unstable”, he says.
Oshiomhole was referring to the many times Atiku has changed his political platforms, in his bid to become the president of Nigeria. Atiku was the founding member of the PDP. He moved from the PDP to the APC in 2014. The APC chairman, who ignored the political reality of many Nigerian politicians who often move from one political party to another, including President Muhammadu Buhari, who moved from CPC, ANPP and then to APC, to realize his ambition, said such an unstable politician should not expect to win Nigerian votes.
He said Atiku thought he could buy Nigerian votes with his money in the manner he bought the primary that took place in Port Harcourt with dollars, which gave him the PDP ticket.
Oshiomhole, who was apparently gloating ,over the victory of APC at the just concluded presidential election, said in his speech, at a world press conference held at 3 pm today, in Abuja, that all efforts by the PDP to subvert the will of Nigerian voters was checkmated by APC’s “ intelligent, vigilant and resourceful agents”.
He said that while Atiku has the right to go to court, in the same manner he went to court in the past when he felt he had been cheated, the APC would meet at the court to challenge his claims and also prove to him how the PDP was the one that attempted to claim false victory.
He accused Atiku of manipulating the votes in many states, such as in Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Cross River where they tried to get INEC Returning officers to falsify votes.
According to Oshiomhole claims by the PDP that votes in places like Borno State, a war-turn area could return such huge voting figures are invalid because they fail to take into consideration the current facts on ground in those states.
He said in 2015, Boko Haram occupied many local governments such that voting was difficult in many places, but in 2019 President Buhari had succeeded in driving Boko Haram away from those occupied territories which made it possible for many citizens of Borno State to turn out to cast their vote.
The APC chairman disagreed with people who say the 2019 elections were worse than those of 2015, saying that on the contrary improvement was recorded in the just concluded presidential polls. “There was substantial improvement”, he argued, adding, “I refuse to use the word perfect election”.
According to Oshiomhole the Buhari government has the duty to investigate every reported cases of kidnapping, vote manipulation and vote buying that took place during the elections and bring perpetrators to book. “ Until we do that wrong doings will not stop”, he said.
