The initial decision of the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Adamawa State, Mr. Hudu Ari to declare the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Aisha Binani, as the winner of the election, is a watershed to the shambolic nature of the 2023 elections in general, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the 2023 presidential election, Atiku Abubakar, has indicated
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He said he has no doubt that INEC had approached the Adamawa State election with a pre-set agenda of declaring the APC at all cost.
He noted that Nigerians have seen how INEC conducted the February 25 and March 18 elections against the run of play and challenged cheated candidates to go to the court, knowing full well the agenda that they are up to.
The former vice president therefore drew the attention of Nigerians to what he described as ‘the game plan of upturning the democratic wishes’ of the people of Adamawa State in the governorship election in the state.
Atiku, who stated these in a press release signed by his Media Adviser, Paul Ibe, said that in Adamawa, Nigerians are witnesses to a novel practice in election management where a Resident Electoral Commissioner announced the loser of an election as a winner.
In the words of Atiku; “It is, therefore, on this note that we wish to call the attention of the world to the scheme being perpetrated by INEC to compromise the electoral wishes of the people of Adamawa State.
“We also wish to inform the world that such behaviour by INEC has a natural consequence of unsettling the peace and security of the society.
“It must be put on record that the people of Adamawa State will not allow themselves to be cheated three times in a row. It must also be put on record that whatever the consequences of the scheme being scripted, both the INEC and those vested with state powers should be blamed for the consequences of such actions.
“That the APC candidate has a prepared acceptance speech is a pointer to the guarantee of a false victory which the INEC must have promised her.
“Recall that this was the same Resident Electoral Commissioner who pressured the Returning Officer to manipulate the results of the contentious Fufore Local Government Area in the March 18 governorship election.
“The people of Adamawa shall not allow this injustice to pass without being challenged.
“It is our demand that the Adamawa REC and any other parties complicit in this treasonable act should be arrested immediately and prosecuted to the full extent of the law to serve as a deterrent to anti-democratic forces who may want to torpedo our democracy and provoke violence in our country,” he said.