By Philip Ibata
Former Vice President of Nigeria and Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the 2023 general election, Atiku Abubakar, has expressed displeasure at the remarks by the U.S Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken on the status of the 2023 polls.
Blinken, had in a statement earlier today, confirmed that he spoke with Nigeria’s President-Elect, Bola Tinubu on telephone.
In the conversation published on Twitter by U.S Mission in Nigeria, Blinken, assured of United States commitment to strengthening its relationship with Nigeria in coming administration of Tinubu.
Following this dialogue and recognition of Tinubu as Nigeria’s President-Elect by the U.S., Atiku slammed the United States for given “legitimacy to the widely acknowledged fraudulent election in Nigeria”.
Atiku’s statement contained in a tweet, reads, “I am in disbelief that @SecBlinken called Tinubu, a contradiction to the publicly stated position of the US on Nigeria’s 2023 presidential election. This is inconceivable considering that America, as the bastion of democracy, is well briefed on the sham election of February 25. To give legitimacy to the widely acknowledged fraudulent election in Nigeria can be demoralising to citizens who have hedged their bet on democracy and the sanctity of the ballot @StateDept @POTUS @USinNigeria. -AA”
Although the 2023 presidential election has long been concluded, petitions against the process of the election and allegations of rigging and other forms of malpractices, are currently before the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal, which had commenced hearing on the suits.
The PDP’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar the Labour Party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi amongst others, are calling for the cancellation of the election and (or) seeking to be declared winner and to ultimately, stop the inauguration of Tinubu as the next president of Nigeria which they said is not qualified to contest the election.
