Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi Blast Tinubu for rejecting the Report of the EU on 2023 General Elections.

The Candidate of the People's Democratic Party and one time Vice President of Nigeria, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar alongside the Candidate of the Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi, have blasted President Ahmed Tinubu for rejecting the report of the international body, European Union on the Presidential Election. 

Recently, the international body mission, presented their report on the general election in the Federal Capital Territory of the country, Abuja on Tuesday, June 27. The Chief Observer of the body, Barry Andrews, said the report was based on the analysis of compliance with Nigeria's regional and international commitments for democratic elections. 

In the speech of the Chief Observer, he blamed the electoral umpire, INEC, for the operational challenges and hiccup issue that's experienced with the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and the result viewing portal, saying the  discrepancies severely damaged public confidence in the electoral body.

In a statement, issued on Sunday from the Special Adviser to the President on Special Duties, Communications and Strategy, Dele Alake made mention that the report of the E.U. mission is a poorly-done desk job. Also, according to the reaction of the Federal Government of Nigeria, said the European Union had a limited coverage of the election, in addition that, the body based their findings only on hearsay, that they got through rumours, social media commentaries and statements made by the opposition parties. 

According to Mr. Dele Alake, he said, "Sometimes in May, we alerted the nation, through press statement, to the plan by a continental multilateral institution to discredit the 2023 general elections conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission. The main target was the Presidential election, clearly and fairly won by the then candidate of All Progressives Congress, Bola Ahmed Tinubu. 

For emphasis, we want to reiterate that the 2023 general elections, most especially the Presidential election, won by President Bola Tinubu/All Progressives Congress, were credible, peaceful, free,fair and the best organised general elections in Nigeria since 1999.

There is no substantial evidence provided by the European Union or any foreign and local organisation that is viable enough to impeach the integrity of the 2023 election outcomes. 

EU-EOM observed the elections through 11 Abuja-based analysts, and 40 election observers spread across 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory. With the level of personnel deployed, which was barely an average of one person per state, we wonder how EU-EOM Independently monitored election in over 176,000 polling units across Nigeria. 

We would like to know and even ask EU, how it reached the conclusions in the submitted final report with the very limited coverage of the elections by their observers who, without doubt, relied more on rumours, hearsay, cocktails of prejudiced and uninformed social media commentaries and opposition talking heads.

We are convinced that what EU-EOM called final report on our recent elections is a product of a poorly done desk job that relied heavily on few instances of skirmishes in less than 1000 polling units out of over 176,000 where Nigerians voted on election day. We have many reasons to believe the jaundiced report, based on the views of fewer than 50 observers, was to merely sustain the same premature denunciatory stance contained in EU's preliminary report released in March."

In the reaction of the Special Assistant on Public Communications to the former Vice President, Mr. Frank Shuaib, said that the international body's report on the General election explained that the results of the election were not what the majority of the Nigerians wanted. 

In his remarks, he criticised Dele Alake and the Presidency for attempting to discredit the EU report. He said, "Even primary school children who did not vote know that INEC failed woefully and that Tinubu rigged the last election. The Presidential election was held on February 25, 2023 and yet as of July 2,2023, the result of the election has not been fully uploaded. This is despite the fact that this election was the most expensive in the history of West Africa politics. 

How can an election in which the full result have not been fully uploaded after nearly five months be described as credible by any sane human  being? The EU not only provided training for INEC staff but also donated equipment only for INEC to conduct a shambolic poll. So why would Alake claim that the EU has no right to speak when it was the largest single donor to INEC? Mr. Alake should rather be quiet rather than try to defend the indefensible".

In the statement, credited to the National Publicity Secretary of the Labour Party, Mr. Obiora Ifoh, explained that the response of the Federal Government to the report of the EU as "medicine after death".

The National Publicity Secretary said, "Labour Party stands by the position of the EU observation mission. We have always said that this election was massively rigged in favour of the APC and their candidate. What the FG is saying is just medicine after death. Even the blind can see, the deaf can hear and they know this election was manipulated. Without sounding immodest, evidence was given at the tribunal, as you are aware. 

Whatever thing the FG is saying clearly shows that INEC is not in any way independent. It is at the whims and caprices of the government and we know it. But, Nigerians are hoping that the tribunal will right the wrong by correcting it. That's where we stand.

So there is no need to defend the integrity of INEC. Nigerians already know the winner. It is very clear even from the evidence before the tribunal."