The All Progressives Congress has advised former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party presidential candidate in the February 25, 2023 presidential election, to accept his defeat as an elder statesman.
Felix Morka, the APC National Publicity Secretary, gave the advice in a statement issued on Monday in Abuja.
He was reacting to a news conference addressed by Abubakar earlier in the day.
Morka said: “Still bemoaning his electoral loss, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, PDP’s presidential candidate, earlier today, staged a press conference.
“At which he delivered a long, windy, incoherent and preposterous speech unbefitting of a former Vice-President.
“Atiku regurgitated his illusory claim that President Bola Tinubu did not win the Feb. 25, 2023, presidential election at the news conference.”
Morka noted that Abubakar’s allegations that the election was characterised by irregularities was roundly dismissed by the Presidential Election Petition Court and the Supreme Court as unsubstantiated and unproven.
The APC spokesman further noted that nowhere in Abubakar’s speech did he state that he won the election.
This, he said, corroborated the court’s findings and decision that he did not win the election.
“It is delusional for Atiku, and his party to have expected the courts to rely on their bogus, flimsy, unverifiable, uncorroborated claims,” he said.
Morka said that the courts could not have relied on Abubakar’s “illogical and hearsay evidence to overturn an election that was conducted in substantial compliance with the Constitution and electoral laws of our land.
“For a serial election loser, whose life ambition is to rule the country, we understand how pained and utterly distraught Atiku must be.
“However, to continue to deny and disrespect the collective will of Nigerians, disparage the judiciary, incite rage and call our democratic institutions into question is beyond the pale.”
Morka wondered why it was so hard for the former vice-president to accept the popular choice of the electorate and valid decisions of the courts.
The APC National Publicity Secretary also wondered if Abubakar would have vilified the judiciary as he was currently doing if he had won the election and was upheld by the courts as the winner.
Morka added that as rightly pointed out by Abubakar at his news conference, the issues at stake were not all about him, but about the country.
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He maintained that Nigeria was greater than Abubakar’s unrealised ambition to be president, stressing that Nigeria must move and had moved on.
He added: “Regrettably, you missed the opportunity of your press conference to redeem your prestige as an elder and statesman by rising above political pettiness and offer befitting congratulations to President Tinubu on his electoral victory.
“Rather than vindicate you, history will not forget your unwillingness to put the country first and above your personal political ambition.”
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