6th November, 2024
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has dismissed allegations by Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate in the 2023 elections, who claimed that he did not lose the election but that it was stolen from him.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, Felix Morka, the APC’s National Publicity Secretary, described Abubakar’s comments as “most comical.”
Abubakar, a former vice president, took to his X handle to state that the presidential election was unjustly taken from him.
In response, Morka labeled Abubakar as “Africa’s most infamous presidential election loser,” noting that he has faced electoral defeat multiple times, having lost to every elected president since his vice presidency.
Morka pointed out that Abubakar has been rejected by Nigerian voters six times in the past 17 years, highlighting a consistent verdict of untrust and lack of sportsmanship from the electorate.
He emphasized that these defeats were validated by Nigeria’s highest courts, which provided a judicial and constitutional finality to Abubakar’s repeated failures.
“However, a clearly unabashed Abubakar continues to lay a bogus claim that he did not lose the 2023 presidential election. That is beyond comical,” Morka stated, suggesting that Abubakar’s belief that he was cheated in all five of his previous presidential bids reflects a “disturbing political desperation.”
Morka asserted that the discerning Nigerian electorate would not act against their best interests by electing someone with Abubakar’s history. He accused the former vice president of being a significant figure in various corruption scandals linked to past PDP administrations, recalling that Abubakar served under a government that implemented a corrupt petrol subsidy system, which has contributed to Nigeria’s economic challenges.
Morka warned that Abubakar’s quest for the presidency is driven by a desire to reinstate the economic policies that contributed to Nigeria’s current struggles. He criticized Abubakar’s recent proposals for economic reform as outdated and irrelevant to the country’s pressing issues, arguing that he had ample opportunity to implement such ideas during his tenure in government.
“Abubakar thinks himself capable of fixing Nigeria but cannot fix the rot and hopeless dysfunction in his PDP,” Morka concluded. He urged Nigerians to remain steadfast in their support for the APC-led administration of President Bola Tinubu as it strives to revitalize the nation’s economy for the benefit of all citizens.
