The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has mocked the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar over their protest at the headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Monday.
Theliberationnews reported that Atiku and the party’s National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu led PDP members to INEC Headquarters to press home their displeasure over the February 25th poll which produced Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the president-elect.
Atiku, a serial contestant and loser for the highest political seat in the country, lost the keen contest to Tinubu by coming second with 6,101,533 votes to Tinubu’s 8,794,726.
Peter Gregory Obi of the Labour Party (LP) came third with 6,101,533 votes as Rabiu Musa Kwakwanso of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) trailed with 1,496,687 votes.
Reacting to the protest, APC, through Bayo Onanuga, the head of Media and Publicity of the Presidential Campaign Council described Atiku and his co-protesters as a band of jesters.
In a press statement titled: “Atiku Abubakar And His Band Of Jesters At INEC Headquarters” the ruling party expressed disbelief that Atiku who had promised to seek redress in court resorted to what it tagged “a theatre of the absurd.”
The statement read in part: “When the defeated Peoples Democratic Party Presidential Candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar told the whole world last week that he would seek redress in court over the outcome of the 25 February Presidential election, little did we know that he did not plan to be guided by his own promise.
“Going by his political antecedents, it was rather not surprising that Atiku, days later, led a band of protesters, nay jesters in Abuja, to the Headquarters of Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC).
“What was on display today by Alhaji Atiku and his motley crowd was a new low from the perennial election loser.
“With Atiku staging a theatre of the absurd, we fail to see how a march to INEC by a scanty crowd will provide any victory window for him and his fragmented PDP. The only recourse open to Atiku after the electoral umpire declared Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the President-elect, is the Election Petition Tribunal.”
The ruling party wondered that: “Instead of Atiku and his party to wisely spend their time to gather the so-called evidence they hope to present before the courts, they are busy dancing ‘skelewu’ on the streets and causing traffic nuisance to residents of the Federal Capital Territory who were going to work on a Monday morning.
“We don’t expect a former Vice President of Nigeria, a statesman and a Presidential candidate to be so jobless as to have time to disturb public peace over an electoral outcome he had already said he would challenge in court.”
APC, however, administer Atiku to be his age and stopped being ill-advised by Dino Melaye.
“We want to admonish Alhaji Atiku to respect his age and the high office of the Vice Presidency of Nigeria he once occupied. He should stop being teleguided by Dino Melaye, who disclosed scandalously that N400 billion was wasted on the election, which was clear at the outset that Atiku was bound to lose.
“Atiku should avoid being misdirected by other court jesters in his party, who continued to campaign after the election, still spewing their inanities against the President-elect. They are mere comic characters in a traveling theatre group.
“INEC Headquarters is not a court where the prayers of Alhaji Atiku can be answered. No amount of theatrical display will give him succor. The honourable and lawful path to take is for Atiku to get his lawyers to plead his case in court. He should stop throwing tantrums like a baby whose candy was taken away over an election he clearly lost due to his own poor judgment; mismanagement of his own party and violation of power rotational arrangement between the North and the South. The PDP presidential candidate dug his own grave, in his last election and, absurdly, he is trying to rewrite the script of his own utter failure.
“We wonder how Atiku and his party hoped to win when he himself admitted that Peter Obi, his running mate in 2019, ran away with traditional PDP votes from the South-East and South-South.
“It is preposterous that while Atiku is disturbing public peace, chanting phantom electoral victory, Peter Obi is making same claim. We think both men have embarrassed themselves enough and it is time they both resolved who between them is the supposed winner that will challenge our party’s victory in court.
“Finally, we advise Atiku to retire honourably from politics and move to his abode in Dubai. At 77 in November, Atiku does not have age on his side again. He has participated in his last election and hopefully, he has learnt worthy lessons, never to place his selfish interest above party and established principles in his party and the polity.”
