Nigeria’s president-elect Bola Tinubu has accused the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi of allegedly sponsoring one Lloyd Ukwu, a United States-based Nigerian who is the Executive Director of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), to smear him and discredit the February 25 presidential election.
The Independent National Electoral Commission declared Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, as the winner of the February 25 presidential election on March 1, 2023, despite the criticism that trailed the election, which some analysts have described as the worst since the country’s return of democracy in 1999.
Following the alleged rigging of the poll, the United States chapter of NADECO last weekend, announced his expulsion from the group, citing a ‘fraudulent electoral process’.
The group in a statement signed by the company’s executive director, Lloyd Ukwu, Esq., NADECO USA disclosed that the expulsion will be formalised in an international news conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
It stated that it would not accept electoral fraud because Tinubu is a founding member of NADECO and a staunch supporter of NADECO USA.
In the meantime, the group disclosed that it has initiated measures to interrogate the INEC Server and Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines used in the presidential election in an effort to extract the original votes cast.
Additionally, it announced that it will approach the US Congress “to initiate the introduction of a nonbinding Resolution urging the US administration not to acknowledge the election’s outcome.”
Reacting in a statement issued through his Special Adviser, Dele Alake, on the accusations and alleged expulsion, Tinubu said the group wanted to use the press conference to disparage and cast aspersions on the credibility of the 2023 presidential election.
He said he found it insulting, fraudulent and laughable that a platform he was a part of during the military era to emancipate Nigeria was being used against him.
The statement partly read, “Our attention has been drawn to an attempt by one, Lloyd Ukwu, a United States-based Nigerian claiming to be the Executive Director of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) to organise a press conference specifically intended to disparage and cast aspersions on the credibility of the 2023 Presidential Election freely and fairly won by the President-Elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“It must be stated emphatically and without any ambiguity that Ukwu is an impostor, hellbent on hoodwinking unsuspecting Nigerians in the diaspora and the international community to further a sinister agenda on behalf of the Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr Peter Obi, who came a distant third in the last presidential election.
“That Ukwu is attempting to fraudulently exploit the NADECO platform for Peter Obi against Asiwaju Tinubu is so laughable and a grave insult to the sensibilities of Nigerians, who witnessed first-hand the struggle by the pro-democracy group in restoring democratic rule to Nigeria and the roles played by prominent Nigerians, including independence hero and nationalist, Late Chief Anthony Enahoro, Asiwaju Tinubu, Professor Wole Soyinka, General Alani Ipoola Akinrinade, late Commodore Dan Suleiman, Late Rear Admiral Ndubuisi Kanu, Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, Chief Cornelius Adebayo and several other pro-democracy activists in exile to birth the freedom from military dictatorship that Nigerians enjoy today.
“We reiterate that Ukwu was very peripheral to this group of eminent statesmen and illustrious Nigerians who bore the pain and peril of exile so that our country could be free from the jackboot of military dictatorship of Late General Sani Abacha.
“It is imperative to remind Ukwu and his desperate paymasters that while Asiwaju Tinubu put his life and resources on the line during those challenging times, the likes of Peter Obi were either hobnobbing with the military or nowhere to be found.
“In trying to robe himself in an unbefitting garb, Ukwu’s desperation to confer credibility on his mission by using the NADECO name is bound to hit a dead-end and ignominy. To hide under the name of NADECO to deceive the international media and interest groups is an act that should be condemned by right-thinking people.
“We are of a firm belief that Lloyd Ukwu is an agent of the Labour Party and Peter Obi, who were rejected by the majority of Nigerians at the February 25 polls.
“Majority of Nigerians have spoken loud and clear that Asiwaju Tinubu is their choice to lead Nigeria from May 29, 2023. There is absolutely nothing Ukwu and his ilk can do to change this fact of history.” (SaharaReporters)
