Atiku Abubakar, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), says the presidential election that produced Bola Tinubu as the president-elect was marred by “unprecedented fraud”.

Abubakar who addressed a press conference in Abuja on Thursday said his “heart is full of sadness” following the election that was conducted on Saturday.

He said the fraud that characterised the election must be challenged.

He said the “dreams and aspirations of Nigerians who braced all the challenges to go and cast their votes were shattered by the conduct of INEC which failed to live up to expectations”.

“The weekend election was neither free nor fair. Preliminary assessments indicate that it is the worst conducted elections since the return to democratic rule,” Abubakar said,

“The manipulation and fraud that attended this election were unprecedented in the history of our nation. I can still not understand why the electoral umpire was in such a hurry to conclude the collation and announcement of the result, given the number of complaints of irregularities of bypassing of the BVAS, failure of uploading to the IREV, and unprecedented cancellations and disenfranchisement of millions of voters in breach of the Electoral Act and the commission’s own guidelines. It was indeed a rape of democracy.

“Having consulted with leaders of our party and Nigerians from different walks of life, I have come to the conclusion that the processes and outcome of the presidential and national assembly elections of last Saturday were grossly flawed in every material particular, and as such must be challenged.

“This has been attested to by both local and international observers. I want to believe that this was not the legacy that President Muhammadu Buhari had promised.”

Abubakar asked Nigerians who are “traumatised” by the election results to conduct themselves peacefully.

“It is my hope that the judiciary will redeem itself this time around and rise to society’s expectation as the last hope. In the end, who wins is not as important as the credibility of our elections and electoral processes,” he said.

He asked Bubari to “make amends for the good of our country and the future generations and indeed to assure his legacy”.

The Cable