A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, Dele Momodu, says the labour party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, won a majority of the votes in Lagos state as a result of the preponderance of Igbo people in the state.
“What transpired last Saturday, the major factor was ethnic: the Labour Party was able to take over the APC behemoth because of the preponderance of the Igbo people in Lagos. They are everywhere,” Momodu said on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily breakfast show on Thursday.
Momodu, a campaigner for PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, said Obi and Atiku held their respective geopolitical bases but Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) couldn’t hold on to his base in Lagos.
“Obi started in the East. He had his base intact. Atiku had his base intact in the North-East and the North-West. The only person who could not hold his base was Bola Tinubu and now you are telling me that a man who could not hold his base is the champion in the North?” he queried.
“Last Saturday was another sad day for our country,” the Director of Strategic Communications of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council.
“A faulty process cannot give birth to a perfect process. The Electoral Act was not obeyed. So, whosoever won last Saturday cannot lay claim to legitimacy. That process gave birth to the hullabaloo that we have now,” Momodu stated.
He said the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) failed to deliver on its promises, especially on the Bimodal Voter Registration System (BVAS) and an on-time transmission of results through its Result Viewing Portal (IReV).
In the presidential election, LP’s Obi polled 582,454 votes in Lagos to trounce Tinubu, a former Lagos governor who scored 572,606 votes. Obi also defeated Atiku and Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) in Lagos. Kwankwaso polled 8,442 while Atiku polled 75,750 in Lagos.
In total, Obi won 11 states and the Federal Capital Territory but Tinubu scored the highest votes in total and was later on Wednesday announced the winner of the poll and Nigeria’s President-elect.