The Director-General Obi/Datti Presidential Campaign Council in Akwa Ibom State, Capt. Augustine Okon, on Friday, expressed confidence that the mandate given to the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, during the just concluded election would be recovered through legal means.
According to him, the council had collated enough evidence to prove that the LP candidate won the presidential election in the state
Okon, who stated this while addressing a joint press conference in Uyo, along with the leadership of civil society organisations, said that the PCC would liaise with the legal team to ensure that the “stolen mandate” is recovered.
He expressed dismay over the inability of the Independent National Electoral Commission to upload results to the IReV portal despite assurance by its Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, adding that resorting to manual collation and announcement of the results not only gave room for suspicion but also indicated a “grand gang up” to suppress the will of the people.
“The PCC Akwa Ibom State has collated enough evidence to prove that, His Excellency, Peter Obi, won the election in Akwa Ibom State and will liaise with the legal team to ensure that the stolen mandate is recovered.
“You are aware that prior to the election, the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, had promised Nigerians that all units’ results will be uploaded to the IReV portal from such units through BVAS. But without any notification or explanation, INEC proceeded to manually collate and announce the so-called election results.
“This does not only give room for suspicion but eventually shows a grand gang up to not just suppress the will of the people but impose an unpopular candidate on Nigerians through a flawed process,” he said.
Recall that Obi, while addressing the world on Thursday, indicated his readiness to commence a legal battle to retrieve his mandate.
In their separate remarks during the briefing, leaders of the coalition, Comrades Nathaniel Ifot, and Bernard Titis, expressed dismay over what they described as “daylight robbery of Nigerians of their votes,” and condemned INEC for not living up to its promise of delivering transparent and fraud-free elections.
Mr Ifot, in his remarks, flayed the outcome of the polls and appealed to well-meaning Nigerians to prevail on INEC to correct the anomalies by reorganising another round of the presidential contest in a free, fair and transparent manner, in order to assuage the feelings of most Nigerians who, desirous of change, trooped out to cast their votes.
According to him, it was time for all systemic injustices and impunities to be addressed for the country to remain in peace and harmony for real development to thrive.
Comrade Titus, on his part, lamented that votes at his polling unit in Ini Local Government Area were allegedly upturned against the LP but urged the people to be resolute in voting for all the LP candidates in the March 11 governorship and state House of Assembly polls, while waiting for the final outcome after various courts would have determined the cases.
