Don’t Set Adamawa on Fire! Declare Full Results, Winner Today-Atiku tells INEC

Former Vice President and presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the 2023 presidential election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has asked the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to immediately conclude collation and announcement of the results in last Saturday’s gubernatorial election in Adamawa State, as any further delay could endanger democracy and stoke violence in the state.

Atiku, a staunch supporter of the incumbent Governor Fintiri who squared against Senator Aisha Binani at the re-run poll, made the declaration through a press statement issued by Paul Ibe, his media adviser.

In the release, Atiku who lost to Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the February 25, 2023 presidential vote, said he was drawing the attention of Nigerians to the game plan of up-turning the democratic wishes of the people of Adamawa State in the governorship election in the state

He further declared that the initial decision of the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Adamawa State, REC, Malam Hudu Yunusa-Ari, to declare the APC candidate, Sen. Aisha Binani, as the winner of the election, was a case study to the shambolic nature of the 2023 elections in general.

Urging INEC to respect the wishes of the people of Adamawa, Atiku declared:

“Here in Adamawa, we are witnesses to a novel practice in election management where a Resident Electoral Commissioner announced the loser of an election as a winner.

“It is not in doubt that INEC has approached the Adamawa State election with a preset agenda of declaring the APC at all cost.

“It is, therefore, on this note that we wish to call the attention of the world to the scheme being perpetrated by INEC to compromise the electoral wishes of the people of Adamawa State.

“We also wish to inform the world that such behaviour by INEC has a natural consequence of unsettling the peace and security of the society.

“We have seen how INEC conducted the February 25 and March 18 elections against the run of play and challenging cheated candidates to go to the court, knowing full well the agenda that they are up to.

“It must be put on record that the people of Adamawa State will not allow themselves to cheated three times in a row. It must also be put on record that whatever the consequences of the scheme being scripted, both the INEC and those vested with state powers should be blamed for the consequences of such actions.

“That the APC candidate has a prepared acceptance speech is a pointer to the guarantee of a false victory which the INEC must have promised her.

“Recall that this was the same Resident Electoral Commissioner who pressured the Returning Officer to manipulate the results of the contentious Fufore Local Government Area in the March 18 governorship election.

“The people of Adamawa shall not allow this injustice to pass without being challenged.

“We demand the immediate resumption of the collation of results and its finalisation today.

“It is also our demand that the Adamawa REC and any other parties complicit in this treasonable act should be arrested immediately and prosecuted to the full extent of the law to serve as a deterrent to anti-democratic forces who may want to torpedo our democracy  and provoke violence in our country.”