Senator Dino Melaye (left) and Mr. Festus Keyamo
Spokesman for the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential campaign council, Mr. Festus Keyamo has alleged that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP) were hatching a plot to use the court to disrupt the ongoing the announcement of the presidential election results.
Both the PDP and LP have rejected the ongoing collation of results at the National Collation Centre, insisting that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) must upload the results to the election result viewing portal (IRev).
Spokesman for the PDP presidential campaign council, Mr. Dino Melaye had yesterday attempted to interrupt the presentation of results by the Ekiti State resident electoral commissioner, and collation officer, insisting that the commission must upload the result on IReV and display them for viewing as states collation officers and their RECs present the results.
The PDP, LP and representatives of some other political parties staged a walkout during the collation of results.
“All of us who have staged a walk out, all the political parties that staged a walk out, our resolution is that the entire process be cancelled. That is our demand. Our demand is that, the system is compromised, INEC is compromised, so the entire process be stalled and cancelled.
“We party agents having observed that the National Chairman of INEC is determined to rig the election, by making sure that results are not uploaded, by vehemently making a presentation that makes it look as if we are all here to rubber-stamp the fraud that has been cooked between INEC and APC, we are saying that we are not here to rubber-stamp the electoral stamp that have been prepared by INEC and APC.
“We are Nigerians and we all know, that there is nowhere on the server that results have been uploaded, he is now saying we should wait for the process to be completed before he will review, knowing full well that once a declaration is done, there cannot be any review but court.
“So we are completely disassociating ourselves and that is why we staged a walk out. All the political parties here have staged a workout to express the unfortunate politicisation and commercialisation of our electoral process.
“We are about 9, 10 agents here staging a walk out and we are saying that INEC is compromised, APC has influenced INEC and we can see results are being changed.
“We have records of where elections did not take place and results have been prepared. We have records of where the BVAs were not used, and results have been pronounced. What is difficult in the INEC chairman showing the uploaded results so that we can compare and interrogate that with the presentation that is made by the state returning officers? But they cannot upload results, they cannot show us uploaded results because they know that what they are going to upload will be at variance with what they are presenting to Nigerians,” Keyamo told journalists outside the collation centre.
Reacting to the development in a statement, Keyamo accused both parties of attempting to scuttle the electoral process and throw the country into constitutional crises. He said the walkout was a prelude to “surreptitiously obtaining ex parte court orders stopping the announcement of the presidential election results which they fear have gone against them.”
He added: “We have it on good authority that the Peoples Democratic Party and the Labour Party have perfected plans to finally scuttle our democracy and throw the country into constitutional crises. The walk-out they staged today at the National Collation Center is just a precursor to executing the plan.
The Statement Reads:
‘PDP and Labour Party are shopping for court orders to stop the announcement of presidential election results and throw the country into constitutional crises.’ We have it on good authority that the Peoples Democratic Party and the Labour Party have perfected plans to finally scuttle our democracy and throw the country into constitutional crises by surreptitiously obtaining ex parte court orders stopping the announcement of the Presidential Election results which they fear have gone against them.
The walk-out they staged today at the National Collation Center is just a precursor to executing the plan
Nigerians would recall that the June 12, 1993, debacle that brought Nigeria to its knees and caused our country international isolation was precipitated by a court injunction stopping the announcement of Presidential Election results. The court order was obtained by a certain Association for Better Nigeria headed then by one Chief Authur Nzeribe. This is exactly what Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, and Mr Peter Obi want to foist on this nation again because of their inordinate ambitions. This is not surprising because both candidates where nowhere to be seen when Asiwaju was fighting for the democracy we all enjoy today.
However, we wish to draw the attention of Nigerians, the Judiciary, and the world to the provisions of section 84 (15) of the Electoral Act which prohibits the grant of injunctions to the stop the holding of elections (which includes the declaration of results). The section states:
‘Nothing in this section shall empower the courts to stop the holding of primaries or general elections under this Act pending the determination of a suit.’
This has prompted their instructions to their campaign organizations, especially their spokespersons to continue to issue statements, making false claims of ‘victory’ when there is no single scientific basis for such claims. For instance, as outlandish as some of their claims of manipulation are, they have not pointed at one single presidential election result in any single unit in the whole country where they scored a particular figure with a result sheet duly signed by their agent that was subsequently changed at a Collation Centre.
All we hear are sound bites of their spokespersons, huffing and puffing about winning the election just to whip up public sentiments to prepare the ground to reject the results when they are eventually released by INEC. For us, our position is very simple and straight forward: we wish to allow the legal process of declaring presidential election results to take place peacefully and in an orderly fashion. Asiwaju is not desperate but is very confident of victory.
We therefore wish to advice anyone who wishes to aid and encourage these candidates along this infamous part to remember the June 12 debacle. They may also wish to learn a lesson or two from President Muhammadu Buhari who resorted to the court of law in 2003, 2007 and 2011 when same PDP ‘defeated’ him in those presidential elections in controversial circumstances. President Buhari, as a true statesman and democrat, never resorted to underhand tactics to declare himself President.
We hope a word is enough for the wise.
Thank you.
Festus Keyamo, Director of Public Affairs and Chief Spokesperson, Tinubu/Shettima presidential campaign council.
