The Director-General of the Voice of Nigeria (VON), Mr. Osita Okechukwu, claims that he completely comprehends the opposition parties’ anguish over the decision of the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC).
This was said by Okechukwu, who is also a founding member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), during a press conference in Abuja.
He claimed that although the main opposition PDP had a good chance of winning the 2023 presidential election, the party’s nominee, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, had political ambitions that prevented the party from winning.
Atiku’s reluctance to seize the chance and act as a statesman by endorsing his former running mate Peter Obi or any other Southern presidential contender, according to Okechukwu, split the opposition party.
The PDP was dealt a severe blow by Atiku, one from which it would be challenging to recover.
He denied assertions made by the petitioners that President Bola Tinubu had the qualifications to compete for office and that the respondents’ case had been irreparably damaged by charges of irregularities in the election’s administration and the failure to electronically transfer results in real time.
The former vice president naively forgot that northern voters are some of the most sophisticated in the country and believed that northern electorate would behave like children in a dormitory waiting for instructions on how to vote, according to him. All the votes Labour Party received were from the party’s stronghold.
For saving the zoning convention, which ensures equity and natural justice between the north and south, Okechukwu said Tinubu deserved praise.
“So, it is apparent that Atiku either intentionally or unintentionally gravely injured the fabric of the PDP when he sacrificed statesmanship on the altar of petty political ambition. According to the cliche that “a divided house cannot stand,” Nigerians should understand that Atiku’s selfishness prevented the PDP from winning.
The APC leader offered a revamped electoral law as a solution, one that would make solely electronic accreditation and results transmission mandatory and eliminate all obvious problems.
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