***says he will not runaway but be with them through the darkness to the daybreak
Presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Gregory Obi has indicated that the records presented by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), for Saturday, February 25, 2023 presidential election were outcomes of discreet manipulations.
He alleged that people saddled with the responsibility to provide a free and fair election tampered with the results.
He spoke on Thursday while fielding questions from Newsmen during a world Press Conference in Abuja
According to him,
“The figure presented for participation of voters did not reflect progression given the history of the electoral register and voters pattern since 2015.
His words: “In 2015, the number of registered voters is about 67 million and 29.4 voted. In 2019, the registered voters rose to about 84 million and about 28. 4 million voted. We were told that about 11m registered in 2022, if am correct, it brings the registration to about 95m registered voters but 87 million voters collected the PVC because of the issue of not being able to collect their PVC, only 23 million voted.
“You can now see how Nigeria works. We have an increase of 11 million and the voters drop sharply by over 20 % instead of increasing. The reason was due to manipulation and reduction, removal and inputs of votes here and there of votes otherwise the numbers were supposed to have increase because people were busy doing what is wrong,
“I have chosen to challenge this rascality for the future of the country” Obi argued.
He regretted that Nigeria cannot conduct an election after 63 years and noted that such development, called for a reflection, stressing that an unexamined life was not worth leaving, maintaining that Nigeria cannot go on like this.
Obi said the party is not in any alliance with any party, instead, it is in, he said the Labour party is in discussion and partnership with all Nigerians who feel hurt by the process.
The presidential candidate of the Labour Party emphasized that he would be challenging the process that culminated into the emergence of the All Progressive Congress (APC), and stated that the process through which a person comes to any place was far more fundamental thereafter.
Obi said a clean faultless process gives the leader moral authority over all things under his supervision, he asked “if we use the process we used today, tell me how we can tell the kidnapper he is doing the wrong thing.”
“I have not made call to anybody, I am not against making call, everybody that has been involved in this, even the two main contenders, I have always said, they are far my seniors, they should actually be my father, so I respect them and if they call me and want me to see them, I will see them.
“But on this issue, I am challenging the process,” the LP presidential candidate stated.
Obi said as a beneficiary of justice in the past, he has huge respect and confidence for the Court, to be able to get justice as he approached them for justice on the Saturday, February 25, 2023 presidential election.
The Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party said he would provide the evidence of irregularities in the election at the court. And stated that he will allow himself to be under any kind of pressure for challenging the misconduct and rascality.
“Nobody will ever put me under pressure when I challenge misconduct, rascality or illegal process. How do you put the kidnappers under pressure but by eschewing what is wrong.
“I am challenging a process that is faulty, a process that is wrong, it could be anybody, it is not about anybody, its about the future, so there is no pressure,” Obi stated
He said he would not engage the international community on a purely Nigerian issue, however, he said he will not decline responding to any invitation for any kind of legitimate engagement, and maintained that it is a Nigerian problem that should be solved by the Nigerian people
Obi appealed to the youths to come out enmasse and vote the Labour party in the March gubernatorial and state assemblies elections
“It is a long Journey, I am committed to going through this journey with them, is not going to be a one day journey, no matter how long the night is, there will be day.
“I want to assure you that there will be day, I want to go through this darkness with them because I know, we are not going to ask these people to leave there easily, they have structure.
“They have structure of criminality, that structure cannot go overnight; that structure of destruction cannot go overnight; structure that has created 133 million people living in multidimensional poverty, cannot go overnight; structure that has created 95 million people living under absolute poverty, cannot go overnight; structure that has created 20 million out of school children cannot go overnight.
“All we need to show is commitment, resilience, use all the resources that we can, all our energy to do this. I want to assure them that I am not going away, I will be at the forefront, we will walk through this darkness, until the day break.
“I know the Court will do the right thing because their children are involved. I am challenging the process which is faulty, in fact, you cannot build peace on a faulty foundation. The foundation has to be right for peace to prevail. That is the foundation, I am challenging”
“It has to be on the foundation of honesty, transparency, justice and fairness. We went into election where somebody promised we are going on a route to go there and we follow the track. Suddenly in that long distant journey, as we get to the end of it, somebody jump from somewhere else and claim the price, what doo you do? He asked
The LP candidate said the process is important and on the journey to fix Nigeria and Africa, the process must be corrected through e promotion of orderliness, that builds a society.