The former vice-president denounced the “unprecedented” frauds on Thursday who would have tainted the victory of the candidate of the ruling party, Bola Tinubu.
Mo12345lemonde with AFP
Atiku Abubakar, who arrived second to the presidential election of February 25 in Nigeria, denounced Thursday March 2 of manipulations and frauds “unprecedented”, evoking an “rape of democracy”, after the victory of the candidate of the ruling party , Bola Tinubu.
“The manipulations and the fraud that accompanied this election are unprecedented in the history of our nation,” said the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the press in Abuja. According to him, the eagerness of the electoral commission to publish the results in this context constitutes a “rape of democracy”.
“I still do not understand why the electoral referee was so in a hurry to conclude the collection and the announcement of the results, given the number of complaints and irregularities” recorded, he said. “It is indeed a rape of democracy.” According to him, the results proclaimed by the independent national electoral commission “were roughly biased” for the benefit of Mr. Tinubu, 70, of the Congress of Progressives, who officially won the presidential election with 8.8 million votes, or 36 % of the votes.
future dispute to court
The former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, 76, obtained 29 % of the votes, and the youth favorite, Peter Obi, 61, arrived third with 25 % of the votes. The latter, who also denounces massive fraud, has already announced that he would contest the results before the courts.
Questioned on whether he intended to do the same, Mr. Abubakar simply replied: “Our lawyers study the results of the election, we are waiting for their advice (…) and we will decide to conduct . “” This is not me, it is you, the future of Nigeria and youth, “he added, while calling on his supporters to abstain from any reaction violent.
The ballot, which generally took place in calm, was marked by delays in the counting of votes and important failures in the electronic transfer of the results, causing the anger of many voters and opposition parties .
In the past, the elections organized in the most populous country in Africa have often been marred by allegations of fraud and violence. Wednesday, Mr. Tinubu called on his opponents to “team up together”: “I ask you to join us so that we can start rebuilding our national home together.”