The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its Presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar are deliberately inciting their supporters with the false impression of a “stolen mandate”, according to the Buhari Media Organisation (BMO).
This, it said, is a calculated attempt by the opposition to cause a breach of the peace after its candidate was rejected by a large majority of eligible voters on February 23.
BMO said in a statement signed by its Chairman Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary Cassidy Madueke that what the PDP is doing is an assault on the sensibility of Nigerians.
“We find it worrisome that PDP has been regaling Nigerians with hollow tales of a stolen mandate even before INEC completed the announcement of the Presidential election results.
“Equally worrisome is the attempt to equate their grouse with that of genuine pro-democracy groups over the June 12 1993 elections, and thereby nudge their supporters to take to the streets in protest.
“PDP’s ploy to discredit the Presidential election as the worst in Nigeria’s political history is clearly dead on arrival, as it is a known fact that many of the elections conducted under PDP’s watch did not measure up to acceptable global standards,” it said.
The pro-Buhari group said it was surprised that the PDP is talking about a mandate with an un-electable Presidential candidate that could not win even his polling centre.
“Is it not amusing that PDP is claiming the mandate of an election that it was clearly unprepared for?
“Here is a party that did not deem it necessary to campaign in sixteen states and the FCT, out of arrogance, yet it believes it did better than a ruling party that embarked on a three-layered political campaign led by President Muhammadu Buhari in every part of the country.
“Even in terms of pedigree, PDP has little or nothing to show for its sixteen years in power at the centre, aside from abandoned infrastructural projects, yet it wants the world to believe that a majority of Nigerians were ready to trade the sure and steady progress under President Buhari for a return to locust years”.
BMO urged Atiku and his party to seek redress in court rather than encourage their supporters to engage in acts of disobedience.
It said: “This is a party that adopted a campaign theme of going to court to “claim its mandate” soon after President Muhammadu Buhari was declared winner but appears now to be dragging it feet.
“So it would be appropriate for the former Vice-President, as a democrat that he says he is, to rein in his lieutenants and advise them to respect constituted authorities inspite of the bitterness of the electoral loss.
“We hope that the subtle call to protest is not in line with what some PDP chieftains had, few weeks ago, referred to as the ‘Venezeulan option’”