THIS DAY
The Labour Party (LP) has lambasted President Muhammadu Buhari over a statement the party described as distortion of facts and standing truth on its head.
This is even as the party insisted that it won the February 25 presidential election as against the results declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
President Buhari had in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said, “that the opposition parties lost the 2023 presidential election because of their “overconfidence, complacency and bad tactical moves, and which he claimed created more problems for them.”
The President further asserted that “while the APC was working hard to retain power in the recent elections, the combined opposition was busy telling their foreign backers that they would defeat the APC.”
But in a swift reaction yesterday, the Labour Party, in a statement issued by the Acting National Publicity Secretary of the Abure-led NWC, Obiorah Ifoh, carpeted Buhari’s position, insisting that the party won the last presidential election but its mandate was stolen.
He said: “We want to point it out clearly to President Muhammadu Buhari that his position on the outcome of the said election was false, untrue, and it is not a true reflection of what played out during the election.
“There are several reasons why opposition political parties lost the 2023 election; the first is that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC snubbed the electoral act wherein it failed to upload the result from the polling unit in real time as promised and in disregard to the laws guiding the election. The INEC, by so doing, created room for that election to be rigged.”
The Labour Party said Bola Ahmed Tinubu did not win the last presidential election and hence should not be parading himself as the President-elect.
“APC’s presidential candidate didn’t win the election, because the said election, particularly, the presidential election was manipulated and rigged beyond comprehension. So political parties didn’t lose election because of over confidence or complacency as proffered by Mr. President, APC in collaboration with the various government agencies simply rigged the election and rigged themselves into power.
“Let me remind Mr. President of the magnitude of violence, ballot snuffing, snatching and manipulations of result from the collation centres using security agencies, which included police, army amongst others as well as thugs to manipulate elections in favour of the ruling party.”
The statement also described the controversies that trailed the Adamawa State governorship election as a fraction of the overall brigandage, shenanigan and outright subversion of the people’s will, as perpetrated by the ruling All Progressives Congress, INEC and its cronies, manning sensitive government institutions.
