The New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) has maintained that Rabiu Kwankwaso, its presidential candidate will not congratulate Bola Tinubu, Nigeria’s president-elect, on his victory in Saturday’s presidential election.
This is as the party denied report that the former Kano State governor has congratulated Tinubu.
The NNPP, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Agbo Major, said it could not have congratulated Tinubu, because the presidential election was “grossly flawed, contentious and disputed.”
The party said, “The report that Engineer Kwankwaso congratulated Tinubu was a figment of the fertile imagination of anti-democrats, political hirelings and fifth columnists leveraging the popularity of the party’s presidential flag-bearer.
“The NNPP rejects the outcome of the February 25, 2023 presidential election as it did not reflect the will, wish and mandate of Nigerians, who trooped out to vote but were disappointed by the failure of INEC to conduct a credible and transparent election and fulfill its promise to upload the polling units results to its portals, which would have guaranteed the authenticity of the results and declaration of the winner of the presidential election.
“Sadly, the presidential poll turned out to be a charade as it failed to meet the expectation of Nigerians and the international community. The NNPP was a target of these electoral robbers who want the status quo to remain, in place of the new and better Nigeria the party promised if voted into office.
“It is unthinkable that Kwankwaso would hastily congratulate Asiwaju Tinubu on his questionable mandate, which other candidates also claimed they won and have approached the court to seek redress. All lovers of democracy, due process and rule of law will wait for the determination of the election petitions in court.
“Until the court decides them one way or the other, it will be preposterous for NNPP, that was rigged out in most of its strongholds across the country, to concede defeat and congratulate INEC’s imposed ‘winner’.”
The NNPP said the mood of the nation since INEC “mischievously” declared Tinubu winner of the election “clearly showed that it was justice juxtaposed, absolutely unacceptable to majority of Nigerians who desire and deserve a new Nigeria, which only the NNPP can usher in.”
However, it urged Nigerians not to despair, saying the governorship and state Houses of Assembly election coming up Saturday “is yet another opportunity to vote for NNPP candidates for a better, greater and prosperous Nigeria.”