Abigail Erhiagboje
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has urged Atiku Abubakar to accept defeat as a Statesman, congratulate president Tinubu and move on like other Nigerians have done.
The ruling party stated this in a Press Statement through its National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, in reaction to Atiku’s Press Conference held earlier on Monday.
According to APC, Atiku has been unable to bear his recent loss in court which made him resort to staging a press conference earlier in the day and which he “delivered a long, windy, incoherent and preposterous speech unbefitting of a former Vice President.”
The party also referred to Atiku’s speech as a foggy and contemptuous perspective for saying that the Supreme Court “implies by its judgment that crime is good and should be rewarded.”
They said that Atiku regurgitated his illusory claim that President Bola Tinubu did not win the February 25, 2023 presidential election, instead, soliloquized that he and his team of counsels “showed irrefutable evidence of gross irregularities, violence and manipulations during the elections.”
According to the APC, such allegations labelled on the party and their candidate, president Tinubu, by Atiku, were roundly dismissed by the Presidential Election Petitions Court and the Supreme Court as unsubstantiated and unproven and that it was quite surprising that the Statesman did not in any way state that he had won the election in his long press conference, thereby proving the courts’ finding and decision that he had not won the election.
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“It is delusional for Atiku, and his degenerate PDP, to have expected the courts to rely on their bogus, flimsy, unverifiable, uncorroborated, illogical and hearsay evidence to upturn an election that was conducted in substantial compliance with the Constitution and electoral laws of our land. Thankfully, it does not lie in Atiku’s mouth to declare what constitutes “incontrovertible evidence.” That is the constitutional duty of the courts and which they have discharged honorably and creditably,” the Statement read.
The party further claimed to understand how pained and utterly distraught Atiku must be to have occasionally lost in elections as a “serial election loser whose life ambition is to rule the country.” However, Atiku’s continuous denial and disrespect of President Tinubu’s win, in spite of him having been elected according to the collective will of Nigerians, disparaging the judiciary, inciting rage and calling the country’s democratic institutions into question was beyond the pale.
It said: “Why is it so hard for Atiku to accept the popular choice of the electorate and the valid decisions of the courts? How is it that a man of his stature can be so befuddled to this disturbing level of election and judicial denialism? Would Atiku vilify the judiciary as he is doing had he won the election and upheld by the courts as winner?”.
The party asserted that Atiku was right when he said that his undying resolve to seek justice for the country was not just about him and cannot be all about him, but rather, it is about Nigeria, as the country is greater than his unrealized ambition to be president. Hence, Nigeria must move and has moved on.
“Regrettably, you missed the opportunity of your press conference to redeem your prestige as an elder and statesman by rising above political pettiness, and offer befitting congratulations to President Tinubu on his electoral victory. Rather than vindicate you, history will not forget your unwillingness to put the country first and above your personal political,” the party said.
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