The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Sen. Abdullahi Adamu, has described the leadership of the Labour Party, LP, and Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, as bad losers.
Adamu’s remarks followed the announcement of results of the 2023 presidential election which the two political parties insist were doctored in favour of the APC candidate, Asiwauju Bola Tinubu.
Agents of PDP and LP had staged a walk out of the National Collation Centre of the 2023 Presidential election, to interrogate the presentation of the result, saying it was not following section 60(4)b of the Electoral Act 2022.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, however, declared Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the APC as President-elect after the 70-year-old polled 8,794,726 votes.
Adamu, during a press conference on Thursday, said condemned in the strongest possible terms what he described as “the shameful conduct of the leadership of PDP and the Labour Party in their unwarranted attempts to sabotage the elections and throw the country into chaos and avoidable crisis.”
According to him, “It is a pity that they take their loss so badly. They ought to be good sportsmen and women in the political arena.
“Their protest walk out from the collation centre was childish by a calculated attempt to rubbish the elections and impugn the integrity of the electoral umpire. Their call for the cancellation of the elections over their unproven allegations of electoral fraud must be the height of diabolical desperation.
“All patriotic citizens of this country who value peace and unity of purpose must rise with one voice to condemn these elements who want to parade themselves in the public space as the guardians of our electoral system.
“Aided by some self-appointed guardians of our nation’s conscience, they wanted to turn the victory of our party into ashes in the mouths of all Nigerians and set the country up for global opprobrium.
“It is condemnable and unpatriotic and unworthy of men who ought to recognize that in a democracy respect for the right of the people to freely choose their leaders through an election is the fundamental pillar of that form of government. Nothing in our laws and the constitution gives aggrieved individuals and groups the right to abort the unequivocal choices freely made by the people in their wisdom.
“Power belongs to the people and the people must be allowed to exercise it in the best way they choose in instituting the government of their choice.
“Our laws provide channels for the redress of electoral grievances. We urge those who are aggrieved to avail themselves of those channels to seek redress. To set the house on fire in pursuit of a rat is not an act of courage or patriotism. It stands condemnable.”
On the plans of the party in the 11th March Governorship and states House Assembly elections, the National Chairman said, “we won the presidency we’re going to win, I wouldn’t say all because APC is not a greedy party.
“We will win all the win-ables and will make some sacrifices where necessary so that democracy can flourish.”