Ben Peters, Abuja
A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, Prince John Mayaki, has mocked Labour Party’s Vice Presidential candidate in the February 25th presidential election, Datti Baba-Ahmed, over his “illogical claims” in a recent interview where he insisted the vote count of the APC was manufactured but that of the LP was authentic, despite both being the product of the same process.
According to Mayaki, the contradictory claim is indicative of the double standards and hypocrisy of the Labour Party and its supporters, as well as their inability to foreground the rigging allegations beyond sensational and unsubstantiated accusations.
He said, “I watched a video where Datti Baba-Ahmed was asked on Channels TV if he truly believed the elections were rigged; he answered in the affirmative. Also, he was asked if his 6.1million votes were rigged; and he said, no. Even Seun Okinbaloye the anchor of the program was shocked by Mr Datti response and illogicalities – he claimed his votes were not rigged, but other contestants votes were rigged; in the same election conducted by the same umpire, at the same time across the country. This is a clear case of double standard and hypocrisy”.
He also queried why the Labour Party eagerly accepted the outcome of the National Assembly results, particularly in constituencies where they recorded victories – they celebrated the outcome of the Senate and House of Representatives election, but are picking holes with the Presidential one. How logical is that? It would have made a remarkable difference if the Labour Party had gotten majority in the Senate and Reps elections, then fell short at the presidential.”
Dismissing the ‘Obi wave’ as a fluke, Mayaki explained that the Labour Party’s poor outing in the Governorship and State Assembly elections illustrated its poor spread and weak support at the local level, unlike the more established and better grounded APC that re-demonstrated its popularity with key victories.
According to Mayaki, “Obi’s political wave is becoming a fluke, judging by the outcome of the governorship and the House of Assembly election when compared with his previous outing at the presidential election. From 6.1m votes at the presidential election, Obi’s Labour Party fell quite on its back, to less than 700,000 votes throughout the entire country.
“That is a clear failure; and it goes to confirm the earlier claims that, the Labour Party has no structure. In the North, the NNPP presidential candidate oiled his structure and performed well – he won Kano state during the Presidential election, some National Assembly seats and State House of Assembly. The NNPP equally won the governorship seat however, this is being challenged in court. We expected Ahmed Datti to have equally achieved same feat if the Labour Party had its structures on ground but they thought they could to win elections from the blues without working for it”.