The National Working Committee (NWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said that the fresh revelation in the European Union (EU) report has further vindicated the main opposition party and millions of Nigerians “that the February 23 presidential election was rigged to favour President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC).”
In a statement issued in Abuja by the National Publicity Secretary Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, the PDP noted that the revelations of manipulations as detailed in the EU report “further validated queries by the majority of Nigerians that President Buhari was not validly returned for a second term in office.”
The statement added: “The world can now see that the PDP has not been crying wolf in insisting that the election was outrightly rigged with the cancellation of millions of PDP votes, alteration of results and allocation of fictitious votes to the APC.
“Nigerians are still in shock over the revelations by EU of how about 2.8 million votes were deliberately ‘cancelled without sufficient accountability’ and how several returning officers gave no reason for the cancellations.
“More shocking is the iniquity committed at the national collation center, headed by the INEC Chairman, where the EU report exposed inconsistent numbers, distortions and ‘a large discrepancy of 1.66 million’ more registered voters, as announced by INEC on 14 January, compared to those announced by state returning officers during the collation of presidential results.
“Nigerians witnessed, on national TV, how professors and returning officers were unable to reconcile result figures due to heavy manipulations upon which INEC declared the APC winner.