Spokesmen to President-elect Bola Tinubu: Festus Keyamo, Sunday Dare, and Ajuri Ngelale, have identified the disarray in the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as one of the factors that led to its winning the disputed February 25 Presidential election.
No explanation has been offered why other prominent members of Tinubu’s media team like Dele Alake and Bayo Onanuga were not on the trip, but speaking at the National Press Club in Washington DC, United States on Wednesday, the three led by Keyamo SAN, told the International media that while its own party remained cohesive with its 21 governors or prominent members not breaking rank,, the PDP had internal divisions.
Said Keyamo, flanked by Minister of Youths and Sports, Mr. Sunday Dare and another spokesperson, Mr. Ajuri Ngelale: “About eight months to the elections, the main opposition, the PDP, suffered some major set-backs. Its Vice-Presidential Candidate in 2019, Mr. Peter Obi moved to the Labour Party with his supporters, mainly from his region of origin, the South-East. Another of the Party’s main pillar of support in the North-West, Alhaji Musa Kwakwanso moved to the New Nigerian People’s Party (NNPP), taking with him a chunk of the party’s supporters in that region. Five (5) out of the 14 Governors of the PDP, publicly announced they would not be campaigning for or supporting its Presidential Candidate (Alhaji Atiku Abubakar). Meanwhile, the ruling party remained one huge, indivisible entity with no departure of any of its elected officials or public dissent from them. It was in this state of affairs that all the parties went into the elections.”
The Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, canvassed a similar position last week in the US, an indication that confirms speculations that the APC is in overdrive to deflect international public opinion that its victory was not deserved. Opposition elements have been known to internationalise their protests against the declaration of Tinubu as President-Elect, holding rallies abroad and visiting embassies within the country.
Meanwhile the APC trio from the Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) praised President Muhammadu Buhari for giving a level-playing field to all parties through the signing of the Electoral Act and his non-interference in the political process by State institutions.
“There were no reports of deployment of security agents or State apparati in support of the candidate of the ruling party. In fact, in some instances, the opposition celebrated the fact that our candidate had no support of the Government. These led to well-published reports (albeit false) that the President was not in support of the candidate of his own party,” Keyamo said.
Seeking to down-play the role of the use technology in the election, Keyamo told the international media that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Results Viewing (IReV) portal the opposition made so much is just a viewing portal, which has nothing to do with accreditation or verification of voters or even the counting or recording of votes.
When the portal suffered glitches, the INEC stressed its importance in a statement by its spokesman, Mr. Festus Okoye. His words: “The Commission is aware of challenges with the INEC Results Viewing Portal (IReV). Unlike in off-season elections where the portal was used, it has been relatively slow and unsteady. The Commission regrets this setback, especially because of the importance of IReV in our results management process.
“The problem is totally due to technical hitches related to scaling up the IReV from a platform for managing off-season State elections, to one for managing nationwide general elections. It is indeed not unusual for glitches to occur and be corrected in such situations.”
On the use of BVAS, Keyamo gave it a thumbs-up stating that contrary to the outcry by the opposition, the main technological device, Bi-modal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) did not fail on the election day.
“All the local and international observers scored the use of BVAS very high, with one local body called YIAGA, working in coalition with the EU and other International Observers, saying it recorded 88% success in all the polling units it monitored. The Nigeria Bar Association also issued its report saying only 8 percent of voters were not satisfied with the process on that day.”
The problem with IReV notwithstanding, the Senior Advocate of Nigeria observed that since the results have been uploaded eventually, none of the parties produced their own copies of the result sheets obtained at various polling units that substantially contradicts the results released and announced by the Electoral Commission. “Even in their Election Petitions presently before the Court, no such alternative figures have been provided. So, what is all the fuss about?”
He adds, “It is significant to note that some other elections into the Senate and House of Representatives held on the same day, at the same time and with the same personnel. The opposition candidates have since gleefully gone to collect their Certificates of Return for the various seats they won. Why did they not reject the outcome of those elections too and reject their Certificate of Return? This is hypocrisy taken too far.”