The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has asked the presidential candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar to accept defeat and be a statesman.
This was in response to the claim by the former Vice President, in his press conference on Monday, that he was not going to work away from politics despite losing his bid to have the Supreme Court upturn President Bola Tinubu’s victory.
The party said the former Vice President should have used his Monday press conference to redeem his diminishing political image by offering benefiting congratulations to President Tinubu.
The APC National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, in a statement on Monday, described Atiku’s address as a “long, windy, incoherent and preposterous speech unbefitting of a former Vice President.”
Morka, who said that Atiku was still bemoaning his electoral loss, warned the Waziri Adamawa against his spoiler role, maintaining that history will not forget his unwillingness to put the country first and above his political ambition.
See full statement:
“Still bemoaning his electoral loss, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, earlier today, staged a press conference at which he delivered a long, windy, incoherent and preposterous speech unbefitting of a former Vice President.
“In his foggy and contemptuous perspective, the Supreme Court “implies by its judgment that crime is good and should be rewarded.
“Atiku regurgitated his illusory claim that President Bola Tinubu did not win the February 25, 2023 presidential election. Rather, he soliloquized that they “showed irrefutable evidence of gross irregularities, violence and manipulations during the elections”, allegations that were roundly dismissed by the Presidential Election Petitions Court and the Supreme Court as unsubstantiated and unproven. Strikingly, nowhere in his long epistle of a press statement did Atiku state that he won the election, corroborating the courts’ finding and decision that he did not, in fact, win the election.
“It is delusional for Atiku, and his degenerate PDP, to have expected the courts to rely on their bogus, flimsy, unverifiable, uncorroborated, illogical and hearsay evidence to upturn an election that was conducted in substantial compliance with the Constitution and electoral laws of our land. Thankfully, it does not lie in Atiku’s mouth to declare what constitutes “incontrovertible evidence”. That is the constitutional duty of the courts and which they have discharged honorably and creditably.
“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.
“Why is it so hard for Atiku to accept the popular choice of the electorate and the valid decisions of the courts? How is it that a man of his stature can be so befuddled to this disturbing level of election and judicial denialism? Would Atiku vilify the judiciary as he is doing had he won the election and upheld by the courts as winner?
“Atiku, you are right that this is not and cannot be all about you. Yes, it is about country Nigeria. Nigeria is greater than your unrealized ambition to be president. Nigeria must move and has moved on.
“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.
