The Director of Strategic Communications of the Peoples
Democratic Party Presidential Campaign Council, Dele Momodu, on Monday,
insisted that the February 25 presidential election, which produced President
Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, was manipulated.
In a statement tagged, “I stand on rule of law,” issued a
few hours after Tinubu’s inauguration as
Nigeria’s 16th President, Momodu insisted that the judiciary still had to
decide the authentic winner of the poll.
Momodu said he would stand by and not abandon the
presidential candidate of his party, Atiku Abubakar, for any gains.
The PDP stalwart said, “My position on the state of our
country, Nigeria, is simple and straightforward. I’m a loyal member of the PDP
who owes absolute allegiance to Nigeria and its rule of law. My political
party, the PDP and others, passionately hold the view that the last
presidential election was savagely manipulated by the ruling party APC and the
cases are already in courts.
“Nothing will make me
abandon my party on the altar of convenience and profit. Win or lose, I will
continue to stand on this principle without any malice or prejudice against
those who think otherwise. Democracy is a game of choice and I’m resolutely standing
by our candidate, the former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, who has taken the honorable and peaceful step
of going to court to seek redress. This is the only way we can deepen our
hard-earned democracy. Sacrifice is not always convenient but painful.”
He commended those who took the initiative of challenging
the electoral outcome in court, saying, “I salute and respect the Wazirin
Adamawa and others like my dear friend and brother, former Governor Peter Obi,
the Labour Party presidential candidate, for promoting the best tenets of
democracy in Nigeria and I’m willing to encourage them rather than discourage
their onerous quests.”
Last week, the suit filed by the PDP seeking the
disqualification of the Vice President, Kashim Shettima, on grounds of alleged
double registration, was dismissed by the Supreme Court which ruled that the
party lacked the locus to institute the suit in the first instance.
Atiku and Obi both turned down invitations extended to them
by Tinubu to attend his inauguration ceremony, citing different reasons, not
unrelated to the fact that they are in court to challenge the process that
brought him to power.
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