The Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) has described the constant claim of existence of a sever containing results of the 2019 general election by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as part of the five stages of grief the party and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, are suffering from as a result of defeat.
PDP has consistently claimed that it won the presidential election transmitted into the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC’s) server during the 2019 presidential election.
INEC had since denied that claim, saying that it has no result transmitted into any server during the poll.
In a statement on Friday, BMO asked the PDP to stop living in denial, accusing the opposition party of insulting the intelligence of Nigerians with its constant refrain on the electronic transmission of results of the February 28 elections and a non-existent server for collation of results.
In a statement signed by its chairman, Niyi Akinsiju and secretary, Cassidy Madueke, BMO said that the INEC server claim is a ploy by PDP and its presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar to cast doubt in the mind of the average Nigerian, on President Muhammadu Buhari’s electoral victory and not necessarily to win at the presidential election tribunal.
The statement read in part: “We at BMO have seen how the opposition had, even before proceeding to the tribunal, taken its claims of electoral victory based on INEC server results to the public domain.
“And even after the petition was filed, it sustained its position that it won the February election on the basis of results it claimed were fed by electoral officials into the server, through proxies on social and traditional media, until the commission was finally forced to speak out.
“Now that the tribunal has began hearing the case, the manner PDP and its supporters have continually shared videos and posts on social media, and digging up old news reports as well as spreading fake news items show that there is an element of mischief that undiscerning Nigerians need to be aware of.
“The height of it was the fake news attributed to former INEC Chairman Attahiru Jega that the commission transmitted results electronically in 2015 to a central server even though there was no enabling law empowering it to do so.
“Professor Jega has since denied this claim and we wonder what other ridiculous extent opposition elements are prepared to go to in order to insult the intelligence of Nigerians…
“We know that a defeat with a victory margin of close to 4 million is too much for PDP and Atiku Abubakar to take, but we also know that they have yet to go through the five stages of grief. These are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.
“We urge them to consider national interest as they go through the stages of grief over an election they had thought they could win after securing the support of those who considered themselves the owners of Nigeria.”