Rotimi Amaechi, a presidential aspirant of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) has rejected the party’s presidential primary election results.
In a statement on Tuesday, following the announcement of results from some states favouring his rival, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Mr Amaechi condemned the election as rigged and fraudulent.
“Following reports of widespread voter disenfranchisement in most parts of the country during the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential primaries yesterday, I unequivocally reject the concocted results being announced,” Mr Amaechi said.
The former Rivers State governor accused the ADC of vote buying and other electoral irregularities during the presidential primaries, saying the party was not different from the ruling party in rigging elections.
He said, “A party that criticises the ruling APC and INEC for vote buying, rigging and writing of results, cannot be engaged in vote buying, writing of results, and other electoral malpractices that leads to the disenfranchisement of voters who are party members. This is not acceptable.
“I will not accept results from a process that does not reflect the values that the ADC had pledged to uphold, to rescue Nigerians from the impunity and gross mismanagement that our country is currently facing in the hands of the ruling party.
‘There’s no way that about 80 per cent of members of the party were not allowed to vote, and you expect me to accept such results. Then what makes us different from the others? The whole idea of the ADC was to give the Nigerian people a platform, to amplify the voices of the downtrodden, and make Nigeria a better place for everyone irrespective of backgrounds, ethnicity, or religion.”
So far, Mr Abubakar is leading by a wide margin in the state primary election results announced on Tuesday.
He has been declared the winner in Gombe, Abia, Ebonyi, Sokoto, and Zamfara states.
