The Labour Party (LP) has expressed its disappointment at the federal government for discrediting the European Union’s (EU) report on the nation’s 2023 general elections, reports the Daily Trust newspaper.
The EU’s final report on the elections stated that the failure of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to upload the result of the presidential election electronically had severely damaged trust in the electoral body.
But reacting to the report on Sunday, Dele Alake, Special Adviser to the President on Special Duties, Communications, and Strategy, in a statement, described the report as “a product of a poorly done desk job that relied heavily on few instances of skirmishes in less than 1000 polling units out of over 176,000 where Nigerians voted on election day.”
He further knocked the EU for relying heavily on rumours and hearsay coming from biased and uninformed social media commentaries by the opposition to prepare its report.
However, the National Publicity Secretary of LP, Obiora Ifoh, in his reaction described the Presidency’s response as a face-saving measure, insisting that his party stands by the verdict of the EU on the elections.
He said:
“It will interest the government to note that the European Union’s report is only one out of numerous submissions by other international observers who have described the outcome of the election as a sham and an exercise that did not reflect the will of the majority of Nigerians.”
“Labour Party stands by the position of the EU observation mission. We have always said that this election was massively rigged in favour of the APC and their candidate. What the FG is saying is just an afterthought and a shameless effort to mask the obvious. Even the blind can see, the deaf can hear and they know this election was manipulated.”
Ifoh further expressed hope that the judiciary will dispense justice in the election petitions before the courts without bias in the interest of the nation and posterity.
He claimed that Nigerians already know the real winner of the 2023 presidential election and nothing can change the fact that the party currently in power did not receive its mandate from the electorate.
He also berated INEC for failing to assert its independence and choosing to do the bidding of the ruling party.
Ifyafrica (
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