The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) on Wednesday refused to sign the result sheet of the Presidential election which was announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Abuja.
INEC declared President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) re-elected haven won the highest votes of 15,191, 847 votes to defeat his closest rival, Atiku Abubakar of the PDP who polled 11,262,978 votes.
Buhari won in 19 states while Atiku won in 17 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the PDP Agent, Mr Osita Chidoka, left the hall at the National Collation Centre when the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu started calling on party agents to come forward to sign the result sheet.
Chidoka, who was a former Minister of Aviation, in an interview with journalists on his way out said that the party does not accept the election result as representing the valid votes of Nigerians, due to three issues it earlier raised by the party.
He said that the party had expected INEC would project the result of the Smart Card Readers used for accreditation of voters.
“The second one is the issues we raised about the number of registered vis-à-vis if what the chairman now calls collated voters means that 1.6 million people are missing in the voter register.
“We think that the issue is substantial enough to require a resolution.
“We also believed that difference between the accredited voters and the total votes cast which came to about 750,000 votes, requires an issue to be looked at.
“Finally, we believe that INEC needs to look at the cancellations that took place in the election impacting 2.7 million.
“So, in our view, this election needs to be looked at again and possibly we would have had a re-run, more importantly.
“We think that INEC should have looked consciously to the use of the card reader. The absence of card reader is a major violation in the elections, it renders that election null and void, and that is what the chairman promised us.
“So, for us in the PDP, we believe that this is a new law in Nigeria’s electoral history.’’
Chidoka, however, said that the PDP remained a very lawful party, saying “we believe in the law, we believe in the constitution of Nigeria.
“We are committed democrats. The PDP is a party that entrenched democracy in Nigeria. The PDP is the party that made it possible for Nigeria to enjoy the fruit and dividend of democracy.
“We will continue to support democracy in Nigeria, we will continue to promote democracy in Nigeria but we have a good message for Nigerians.
“We want them to remain peaceful. We will explore all our options, including the believe that the legal process in Nigeria is one of the ways to resolve issues.’’
NAN
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