PRESS RELEASE BY APC PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN COUNCIL:
PDP PLANS TO
OBTAIN A COURT INJUNCTION ON MONDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2019 TO STOP
ANNOUNCEMENT OF PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION RESULTS AND THROW THE COUNTRY INTO
CONSTITUTIONAL CRISES
Our usual patriotic sources from within
the disgruntled PDP circle and Atiku’s Campaign team have reliably
informed us that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has perfected plans to finally
scuttle our democracy and throw the country into constitutional crises
by surreptitiously obtaining an exparte (one-sided) court order stopping
the announcement of the Presidential Election results which he fears
have gone against him.
We understand that a meeting was held
today with a group of senior lawyers who were instructed to prepare and
file the processes in court on Monday, February 25, 2019. Alhaji Atiku
Abubakar was clear in his brief to the lawyers that he must be declared
the President-elect of Nigeria by hook or crook, whether he wins or
loses, or else he would drag the country down with him.
Nigerians
would recall that the June 12, 1993 debacle that brought Nigeria to its
knees and caused our country international isolation was precipitated
by a court injunction stopping the announcement of Presidential Election
results. The court order was obtained by a certain Association for
Better Nigeria headed then by one Chief Authur Nzeribe. This is exactly
what Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who claims to be a democrat, wants to foist
on this nation again because of his inordinate ambition.
We are
also informed that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar confided in those around him
that his desperation is borne out of the fact that he has made profound
commitments to his local and international sponsors regarding the sale
of our national assets like NNPC and others to them that he cannot just
afford to let them down at this time, having assured them that there was
no way he would not win the presidential election. However, results
trickling in from around the country have dampened his optimism.
This
has prompted his instructions to his campaign organization, especially
his spokespersons to continue to issue statements, making false claims
of ‘victory’ when there is no single scientific basis for such claims.
For instance, as brazen as they are to claim victory, they have not
pointed at one single presidential election result in any single unit in
the whole country where they scored a particular figure with a result
sheet duly signed by their agent that was subsequently changed at a
Collation Centre. All we hear are sound bites of Atiku’s spokespersons,
huffing and puffing about winning the election just to whip up public
sentiments to prepare the ground to reject the results when they are
eventually released by INEC.
For us our position is very simple
and straight forward: we wish to allow the legal process of declaring
presidential election results to take place peacefully and in an orderly
fashion. President Buhari is not desperate, but is very confident of
victory.
We also note their attempt to discredit the entire
elections by certain isolated incidents of violence in some parts of the
country. For instance, Lagos State that has more than 13,000 voting
points recorded a very unfortunate, despicable and condemnable act of
violence in one voting point that was clearly not perpetuated by any
known or accredited member of our party. Yet the PDP has cried out to
the world about ‘burning of ballot papers in most parts the country’.
We
therefore wish to advice anyone who wishes to aid and encourage Alhaji
Atiku Abubakar along this infamous part to remember the June 12 debacle.
Alhaji Atiku Abubakar may also wish to learn a lesson or two from
President Muhammadu Buhari who resorted to the court of law in 2003 when
Atiku, along with President Olusegun Obasanjo, ‘defeated’ him in the
presidential race in that year in controversial circumstances. President
Buhari, as a true statesman and democrat, never resorted to underhand
tactics to declare himself President.
We hope a word is enough for the wise.
Thank you.
FESTUS KEYAMO, SAN, FCIArb (UK)
Director, Strategic Communications,
APC Presidential Campaign Council
(Official Spokesperson)
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