Vice presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Peter Obi, has thanked Nigerians for their support for the PDP during the presidential election on February 23.
Speaking to the press in his Onitsha home on Monday, Mr Obi said he was touched by the eagerness with which Nigerians came out to fulfil their civic duties of voting.
He thanked especially the youth and women, some of whom exercised their voting rights for the first time in the over 119,000 polling booths all over Nigeria.
Obi also mourned with the families of those that lost their lives and sympathised with those that sustained various degrees of injury during the election.
He appealed to them not to allow their spirit to become dampened towards the performance of their civic duties in future.
Speaking on the general conduct of the election, Obi said it was anything but transparent, free and fair, falling below the standard established by the 2015 presidential election.
He noted that “the 2019 presidential election was characterised by deliberate voters’ suppression and intimidation throughout the South-East and South-South.”
Obi further said, “While some zones voted strictly using the card readers, other zones, as part of the manipulation orchestrated by the ruling party, APC, were allowed to vote without card readers contrary to the guidelines INEC issued before the election.”
On the way forward, Obi said he aligned fully with PDP as a party, the presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and well-meaning Nigerians in condemning the exercise.
However, concerning those that advised against going to court, Obi said that the dilemma of Nigeria was allowing impunity to go unchallenged.
“Besides putting a stop to impunity,” Obi said, “such a challenge will also go a long way in strengthening the electoral processes and in guarding against repetition of such dastardly acts in future.”
