The Labour Party (LP) has described President Muhammadu Buhari’s comment on the February 25 presidential election as false.
The party was responding to a recent remark by President Muhammadu Buhari that the opposition parties lost the 2023 presidential election because of their “overconfidence, complacency and bad tactical moves”.
Acting National Publicity Secretary of LP, Mr Obiora Ifoh, said this in a statement on Friday night.
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.
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“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 results 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.
“Again, the current APC president-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu 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,” Ifoh said.
He also said that President Buhari should be reminded of the magnitude of violence, ballot snuffing, snatching and manipulations of results from the collation centres using security agencies and thugs to manipulate elections in favour of the ruling party.
He said, “Recently, we saw the show of shame that took place in Adamawa. What played out in Adamawa was a microcosym of what played out all over the states during February 25 and March 18 elections in Nigerian. Why the case of Adamawa was given huge publicity and attention because of the involvement of an INEC National commissioner who was a victim, thus forcing INEC to take prompt action.
“From Lagos to Rivers, from north to southern parts of the country, all over, violence characterised that election. In most cases, some agents and supporters were not allowed access to the polling units.
“All of these put together, do they amount to over confidence and complacency on the part of the opposition party? It shows that the President who promised Nigerians that he was going to give Nigerians a free, fair and credible election simply failed in his duty in giving Nigerians the election they deserved.”
The LP spokesman said that the 2023 general election is the worst the country ever had since the current republic; since 1999 to date.
