The All Progressives Congress (APC) has described as ridiculous the claim by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar that they won the 2019 presidential election by a margin of 1.6 million votes.

National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, who stated this yesterday while responding to the petition filed by Atiku and PDP challenging the result of the election, said the opposition party might be suffering from post-election depression and hallucination.
In declaring the presidential election result, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, said the presidential candidate of the APC, President Muhammadu Buhari, scored 15,191,847 votes while Atiku scored 11,262,978votes.

But Atiku, in his 139-page petition before the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja, stated that from the data in INEC’s server, the true, actual and correct results showed that he (Atiku) secured a total of 18,356,732 votes to against Buhari’s 16,741,430 votes.
The PDP presidential candidate stated the results were from 35 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) as there was “no report on server” about the election results from Rivers State.
Onilu, who faulted the suit filed by the PDP and Atiku against the election, said that all the prayers of Atiku before the Election Tribunal, were hollow and, at best, laughable.
He said that the most ridiculous of them was his claim that the server of INEC indicated he ‘won’ the Presidential Election by 1.6 million votes.
The APC insisted that the outcome of the Presidential Election was as declared by the electoral umpire.
The ruling party said that during the election, “a vast majority of Nigerians reaffirmed their unshaken belief” in President Buhari to continue to steer the affairs of the country for another four years.
“While the APC is not oblivious of the PDP’s antics to discredit the credible presidential electoral process, acknowledged by local and international observers, we sympathise with Atiku for the crushing defeat handed him by President Buhari through the votes of Nigerians.

“We have watched in disbelief and utter amusement how the opposition PDP and its Presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, have engaged in series of circus shows to cheer up their crestfallen and disillusioned members.
“Judging by Atiku and PDP’s recent utterances and actions, it is now clear that they have slipped into severe depression and post-defeat hallucination that have left many Nigerians questioning their current state of mind.
“After weeks of dilly-dallying, the PDP has woken up to the stark reality of its electoral defeat and decided to follow the constitutional path of filing a petition at the Election Tribunal,” he said.
APC raised a number of questions about Atiku’s claims and wondered if they were not fabricated or invented by some marabouts who may have assured him that the last election was a done deal for him.
It accused Atiku and the PDP of plotting to jeopardise the INEC database, stressing that their persistent reference to information on the INEC server should be of interest to security agencies.
“Most importantly, we note Atiku’s consistent reference to the “INEC server” as if he is the custodian of that platform. Indeed, Atiku’s constant reference to the INEC server should raise concerns as it is becoming apparent that he and the PDP are up for some dastard activities that are targeted at jeopardizing the INEC database and internal storage system.
“We recall the widespread reported cases of several programmed card readers that were retrieved from some PDP agents and their failed attempt to hack the INEC database in the lead-up to the then postponed presidential election.
“We remind Atiku and the PDP that Nigerians saw through the devious schemes aimed at thwarting their will. Consequently, majority of the voters handed them a harsh verdict – that verdict remains sacrosanct.

“We call on the INEC and the security agencies to be on red alert to ensure that Atiku and the other desperate characters in the PDP are not able to execute their evil plans,” he said.