The All Progressives Congress (APC) Campaign Council has urged the presidential candidates of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, to accept defeat and congratulate the APC flag bearer, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. This call was made by Dele Alake, the PCC Special Adviser on Media and Strategic Communications, during a world press conference in Abuja. The conference aimed to address the ongoing demands for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to cancel the election results. This situation arose after the PDP, Labour Party, and the African Democratic Congress jointly requested that INEC National Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, step aside. They alleged that the February 2023 presidential and National Assembly elections were marred by violence, rigging, and voter intimidation.
In a similar vein, PDP vice presidential candidate Ifeanyi Okowa called for the cancellation of the election results during a press conference, claiming a lack of transparency due to the failure to transmit results to polling units. In response, the APC PCC asserted that those advocating for such actions are not true supporters of democracy. Alake urged the supporters of Atiku and Obi to refrain from escalating tensions and encouraged the two candidates to emulate the exemplary leadership of former President Goodluck Jonathan in the spirit of sportsmanship. He stated, “We call on Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi to emulate former President Goodluck Jonathan by conceding defeat. This election has already been won by our candidate, according to the results declared at the collation centres in the state. In 2015, President Jonathan did not wait for INEC to finish collation before he called President Muhammadu Buhari to congratulate him in the true spirit of democracy and sportsmanship. We urge Atiku Abubakar and Obi to follow the same path of honour, instead of attempting to heat the polity via the reckless statements by surrogates. Let Atiku and Obi call Tinubu now.”
Alake, a former Lagos information commissioner, also criticized former President Olusegun Obasanjo for his call to cancel the recent Presidential and National Assembly elections. He argued that Obasanjo’s demand was based on unsubstantiated claims, rumors, and allegations of fraud from opposition parties that had lost the election. Expressing disappointment in Obasanjo’s statement, Alake reminded that even Obasanjo himself had previously acknowledged in an interview that no electoral system is perfect. He asserted, “The APC-PCC wants to say emphatically that former President Obasanjo has no moral right to meddle in this election, let alone call for its cancellation, because he is an interested party, having publicly endorsed the candidate of the Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi, on January 1 this year.”
Alake further emphasized that the ongoing conspiracy to undermine the democratic process through unfounded allegations against INEC is detrimental to the nation’s 24-year democratic journey. He remarked, “We have always suspected that the Labour Party and PDP are the same, only divided by individual inordinate ambition. We want to remind them that an election is a process like pregnancy. Like a pregnancy that has reached full term, it cannot be aborted. We are not in 1993 when June 12 was aborted by similar forces. It is too late to do so.” Additionally, the Chief Spokesman for the APC PCC, Festus Keyamo, criticized those calling for the resignation of the INEC chairman, stating that it is “legally wrong” for any candidate or political party to demand changes in the electoral process before the official results have been declared.
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