Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, state chairman in Anambra, Chief Ndubisi Nwobu, has said he never told Presidential Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja, that the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, LP, Mr. Peter Obi rigged the February 25, election in the state.
Nwobu, who testified on June 7, said his evidence before the court as 11th witness of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the party’s presidential candidate, PDP and the PDP, was misinterpreted to divert attention.
Nwobu on Thursday, through the state deputy director in charge of media and publicity of the Atiku/Okowa Presidential Campaign Committee, Uloka Chibuike, in a statement, said: “The attention of the PDP and Atiku/Okowa Presidential Campaign Committee in Anambra State has been drawn to a publication in the public space where the purveyors of fake news alleged that Chief Nwobu claimed that Peter Obi rigged the presidential election in Anambra State at the ongoing Presidential Election Petition Court.
READ ALSO:Edo Assembly clears Obaseki’s first batch of commissioner-nominees
“This is not only false, wicked and devilish, but also a deliberate attempt by a few innuendos to discredit and blackmail Chief Nwobu’s person.
“We wish to state unequivocally and for the record that the PDP did not file a petition against the Labour Party, nor did the PDP name the Labour Party as a respondent in her suits at the ongoing Presidential Election Petition Court; rather, our petitions are against the APC and INEC.
“Chief Nwobu was at the Tribunal on June 7, 2023, as the 11th witness of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and the PDP, to testify against INEC’s refusal to adhere to its own election guidelines, which state that polling unit results are to be electronically transmitted with the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, directly and in real-time to the IREV portal.
“Chief Nwobu did not, by any means or disguise, state that Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, ‘rigged’ the presidential election in Anambra State or anywhere else.
“The tribunal went further to ask Chief Nwobu who won the election in Anambra State; he responded explicitly that the Labour Party won the presidential election in the state and that his party was not in court with the Labour Party, but with INEC, having reneged on her own guidelines.
READ ALSO:Enugu: Mbah seeks partnership with 8th Assembly members-elect
“While we call on unsuspecting members of the public to kindly disregard the fake news that Chief Nwobu accused Peter Obi of rigging the presidential elections in Anambra State, we also wish to warn online bloggers against patronizing stories with sensational headlines without proper investigations.
“The PDP and Atiku Abubakar, its presidential candidate, are determined to present all evidence against INEC and the APC to convince the Presidential Election Petition Court that the mandate willingly given to Atiku Abubakar by the majority of Nigerians was wrongly appropriated and that such matters must be addressed to retrieve the mandate from the APC.
“Those wishing to divert attention, frame and defame innocent individuals, should desist or face the consequences of their actions.”
