The All Progressives Congress says it is ready to meet Peter Obi, the Labour Party presidential candidate in court over his claim of fraud in February 25 presidential election. It said there are evidence of electoral violations against Mr Obi’s party in the South-East.

Bayo Onanuga, the director media and publicity of APC Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) said this in a statement on Thursday, reacting to Mr Obi’s comments at a news conference in Abuja.

“We welcome the decision of Mr Obi to seek redress in court as an aggrieved party if he is convinced of the evidences of electoral frauds he will present before the tribunal as alleged. Going to court is part of the electoral process and it is the most decent, statesmanlike and civilised course of action to take,“ Mr Onanuga said, noting that it is better than calling supporters to the streets and instigating social unrest.

He, however, challenged some specific claims in Obi`s press address, saying that contrary to his statement, it was not true that the election was not free and fair.

“It is because the process was credible that made it possible for Obi’s Labour Party to record the over six million votes it got contrary to pre-election forecast. That Labour Party and Obi surprised bookmakers by winning in Lagos, Nasarawa, Plateau, Delta and Edo states where there are sitting governors of either the APC or the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP),” the statement explained.

He added that the Labour Party also swept the five South-East states under the control of either APGA, PDP or APC.

“We believe that the Labour Party presidential candidate contradicted himself and exposed himself by suggesting that the election was only credible in states and places his party won. We need to forewarn Obi, that when he gets to court he should be prepared to tell the world how his party won over 90 per cent of votes in his region of South-East while other parties got almost nothing,” Mr Onanuga stressed. “We have evidence of voters’ suppression, intimidation and harassment in South-East, especially of those who came out to vote for our party.“

He pointed out that Mr Obi did not win the presidential election.

“This is because he had no path to winning a national election in a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society like Nigeria. Where a candidate running in a national election must appeal to the cross-section of our pluralistic society,’’ he said.

(NAN)