A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and former Senator, Victor Ndoma-Egba, has condemned in strong terms the call by some opposition parties for the outright cancellation of the presidential election held on Saturday, February 25, 2023.
Describing the demand for the cancellation of the election as treasonable, unpatriotic and selfish, Ndoma-Egba, an erstwhile Senate Leader and former Chairman Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), wondered why anyone would want to truncate the country’s democratic process at this crucial stage.
The national chairmen of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party (LP) and Africa Democratic Congress (ADC), Iyorchis Ayu, Julius Abure and Ralph Nwosu respectively, while addressing a world Press Conference at Transcorp Hilton Hotel in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja on Tuesday had called for total cancellation of the presidential poll conducted last Saturday.
They also passed a vote of no confidence on the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu because, in their words:
“The conduct of the February 25, 2023 election has been marred by widespread violence, rigging, intimidation of voters, doctoring of the results, and violation of the laid down electoral process, which was communicated by the national electoral body, INEC.”
But Ndoma-Egba argued that “There is no provision in our laws to grant such a demand which is preposterous and selfish. It is even treasonable as they seek to truncate our democratic process and therefore destroy democracy.”
Ndoma-Egba, who is the Secretary of the Campaign Planning Directorate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) said, “Democracy is about processes not outcomes. They should allow the processes play out. There are copious legal provisions available to them to ventilate their grievances.”
He stated further that the call for the cancellation of the presidential election was needless and not in the best interest of the country, the ex-Senate Leader advised that political leaders should desist from making provocative and inciting utterances that are capable of engendering crisis or violence.
He said what should be paramount in the minds of all well-meaning Nigerians at this point in time should be how to join hands and work together with whoever emerges as the next president to build and reposition Nigeria for greatness.
Meanwhile, the APC presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has been declared the winner of the election after securing a total of 8,805,420 votes upon the conclusion of the state-by-state collation of results at the National Collation Centre Abuja.
Presidential flag bearer of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar, scored 6,984,290 votes to place second, while the LP standard-bearer, Peter Obi, polled 6,093,962 votes to come third.
