The Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council on Monday slammed President Muhammadu Buhari over irregularities that marred the conduct of the 2023 Presidential and National Assembly elections across the country.
LP PCC expressed disappointment over what it referred to as failure of Buhari to bequeath a legacy of credible elections after being a beneficiary of one which brought him into office.
Director General of the LP PCC, Balogun Akin Osuntokun, stated this at a media briefing in Abuja, on Monday.
Osuntokun explained that both President Buhari and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) failed to live up to their promise to let the votes of Nigerians count despite several assurances.
He said, “We wish to place the following on the record: The President promised Nigerians free and fair elections with the passage of the new Electoral Act and indeed has repeated this promise multiple times.
“The INEC Chairman also came before Nigerians and the Global community to promise free and fair elections and severally reiterated its readiness to conduct the elections.
“What has become glaring is that none of these promises have been kept. All the promises made about deploying a fail-safe system anchored on BVAS were
broken.
“The internet and social media is awash with videos and photographic evidences of the pervasive violence and attacks that were visited on Nigerians with some attacks still on-going across the country as we speak.
“The evidence of collusion between INEC and the security forces to subvert the will of the people are too numerous to be detailed here.
“The INEC guidelines on the conduct of the elections were extensively breached and INEC has evidently been very reluctant to make the necessary adjustment to
remedy the situation.”
The Campaign DG noted that contrary to the publicly advertised guidelines for the conduct of the elections, the Labour Party remains convinced that the processes leading to the results have been severely compromised.
Consequently, he announced that, “We regret to state that we have lost confidence in the results being collated and
being announced.
“Nigerians have inundated us with calls and protests over INEC’s non-compliance with provisions of the electoral guidelines and the obvious manipulations of the election results.
“We hereby call on INEC to suspend further
announcement of the results, and follow its own guidelines or completely cancel the entire election and make plans for another election with strict compliance with the stipulated laws and guidelines.
“We ask the international community to walk their talk in Nigeria, and cease to condone the multiple evils being perpetrated in our country by the rulers of Nigeria. There cannot be one standard for Nigeria, and another for the rest of the world.
“We thank Nigerians for their support for our candidates, and we assure you all that your mandate shall not be surrendered to a desperate gaggle of failed rulers, who have brought nothing but ruination on our dear country.”
The party appealed to Nigerians to remain peaceful and law abiding, whilst assuring them that the party was doing everything within the law to protect their sacred mandate.
