A voter who expected the Presidential Candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, to have won the February 23rd Presidential election in the country, has said that he is disillusioned at the outcome of the Presidential election but that he will not “kill” himself as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), announced President Muhammadu Buhari of All Progressives’ Congress as winner of the February 23rd presidential election.
Speaking in a live call-in radio programme in Port-Harcourt, the caller (name withheld) said that he would not “kill” himself even though his preferred candidate in the presidential election was not announced as winner.
He said that the PDP presidential candidate in this year’s general elections, Atiku Abubakar, would have been a very good choice of President for all Nigerians if he had won the election.
The caller said that he had hoped strongly that the PDP presidential candidate would win the election, but said as it turned out, he was disappointed, saying that he was weighed down by the results as announced by the INEC.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, announced the Presidential Candidate of the All Progressives’ Congress, Muhammadu Buhari, as the winner of the February 23rd presidential election.
The INEC said that the presidential candidate of the All Progressives’ Congress polled a total of 15,191, 847 votes to become winner of the election while the PDP presidential candidate polled 11,262,978 votes.
Meanwhile, the presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, has rejected the results, saying that there were premeditated plans by the All Progressives’ Congress to disenfranchise his supporters in some states.
In a statement he personally signed in Abuja on Wednesday, Atiku said: “The suppressed votes in my strongholds are so apparent and amateurish that I am ashamed as a Nigerian that such could be allowed to happen. How can total votes in Akwa Ibom, for instance, be 50 per cent less than what they were in 2015?
“Another glaring anomaly is the disruption of voting in strongholds of the PDP in Lagos, Akwa Ibom, Rivers and diverse other states with the authorities doing little or nothing and in some cases, facilitating these unfortunate situations”.
He said that soldiers deployed to some states to provide security for voters in the election allegedly turned against voters in the election.
The former Vice President, and PDP presidential candidate said that he would not congratulate President Muhammadu Buhari because he believes that the President was not elected in free and fair elections.
Atiku said: “If I had lost in a free and fair election, I would have called the victor within seconds of my being aware of his victory to offer not just my congratulations but my services to help unite Nigeria by being a bridge between the North and the South. In my democratic struggles for the past three decades, I have never seen our democracy so debased as it was on Saturday February 23.”
However, President Muhammadu Buhari has said that he believes that the elections were free and fair.
The President, who stated this while receiving his Certificate of Return from INEC headquarters in Abuja on Wednesday, said that the elections were adjudged to be free and fair by both local and foreign observers.
Nonetheless, the People’s Democratic Party has said that the 2019 general elections were characterized by intimidation of voters by security personnel, violence and election irregularities.
