All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain Bayo Onanuga has accused the Labour Party (LP) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of blackmailing the judiciary over President-elect Bola Tinubu.
In a statement Monday morning, Onanuga said God has plans for Nigeria and “chose a man who has the best leadership pedigree and espouses the best vision” to pilot affairs from May 29.
The former Media Director of the APC Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) said, having witnessed elections since 1979, “2023 election was the best, most free and fair, most transparent”.
Onanuga noted that those pillorying the exercise and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) are angry because the poll “did not match their expectation”.
The Transition Committee member lambasted clergymen for disparaging the election, recalling the latest comment by Cardinal John Onaiyekan of the Catholic Church.
“To Onaiyekan, the alleged machination of ‘those riggers’ made impossible the manifestation of the ‘people’s will’ in the outcome announced by INEC.”
Onanuga said the “malicious propaganda” has been told repeatedly by the opposition parties and their supporters since March 1, when Tinubu was declared as President-elect.
The “lie”, according to him, has been sold outside the country to people who do not have first-hand information on how INEC conducted the poll.
Onanuga said the 2023 election was “miles ahead of the heavily compromised 2007 election conducted by President Olusegun Obasanjo wherein the beneficiary, Umaru Yar’Adua apologised”.
Yar’Adua atoned for Obasanjo’s sin by setting up the Justice Uwais Commission to sanitise the electoral process, the ex-Mananing Director of the Newsmen.
He said the introduction of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) made a significant difference and made the recent election the most technologically driven poll ever conducted in Nigeria.
“Critics of INEC, on account of the non-transmission of the results recorded at the 176,000 polling units are purely doing so for mischief…each party polling agent was given a copy of Form EC8.”
Onanuga said parties need not wait for INEC to upload results to know the entire results, recalling how ex-President Goodluck Jonathan conceded to President Muhammadu Buhari before INEC’s announcement after knowing his fate.
“In a development that is extremely strange to our politics, the LP and the PDP initially sponsored calls for an interim government. We have never had such post-poll desperation, except this time that we have a Peter Obi and an Atiku.
“Since 1999, every election held has always been disputed by losers. The winners are allowed to be sworn in, while litigation goes on. This was the case in all elections…also the trend in the states,” he stressed.
In reference, Onanuga said when Obi’s running mate, Datti Baba-Ahmed, became Kaduna North Senator in 2011, his challenger went to court and won while the former was already in office.
The statement added that the convention cannot change in Tinubu’s case because some people believe that the candidates who came second and third are pursuing cases in court.