*Says BVAS technology has helped return sanity to elections in country
*As technology makes last polls most fair, credible
*’I regard it as a game changer’ – Lai Mohammed
By KEMI KASUMU
“This is treason. You cannot be inviting insurrection, and this is what they are doing.”
The Nigerian government has said told members of the international community that presidential candidate of Labour Party and his running mate in Nigeria’s Saturday February 25, 2023 elections are treading the path of treason as it accuses them of inviting insurrection while challenging results of the process.
It said this while issuing warning to the opposition politicians against inciting people to violence over the outcome of the presidential elections.
The accusation by the Federal Government was communicated via Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who spoke in Washington DC, United States of America (USA) during his official engagements with some international media organisations.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the minister was in Washington to engage with international media organisations and think-tanks on the just concluded 2023 polls.
The minister, who had reportedly engaged so far respectively with the “Washington Post”, Voice of America, Associated Press and Foreign Policy Magazine, told the Western press that it was wrong for Obi in one breadth to seek redress in court over the outcome of the polls and in other breadth incite people to violence.
“Obi and his Vice, Datti Ahmed cannot be threatening Nigerians that if the President-elect, Bola Tinubu of the All-Progressives Congress (APC) is sworn-in on May 29 , it will be the end of democracy in Nigeria.
“This is treason. You cannot be inviting insurrection, and this is what they are doing.
“Obi’s statement is that of a desperate person, he is not a democrat that he claimed to be.
“A democrat should not believe in democracy only when he wins election,” he said.
The minister said in challenging the election results, there was no pathway to victory for either Obi and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
According to the minister, both Obi and Atiku failed to meet the constitutional requirements to be declared as president.
“The constitution has stringent criteria for any body who want to be president of the country.
“Not only must he has the plurality of vote cast in an election, he must also have scored one quarter of votes cast in at least 25 states.
“Only the President elect met the criteria by scoring 8.79 million votes and having one quarter of all the vote cast in 29 states of the federation,” he said
The minister said Atiku who came second with 6.9 million votes was only able to make one quarter of votes cast in 21 states.
He said Obi came third with 5.8 million votes but won only one quarter of votes cast in 15 states.
“You cannot win election in a poll where you came a distant third position and failed to meet constitutional requirements.
“Peter Obi, while complaining of fraud has not disown his victory in Lagos,” he said.
Elaborating on his mission to the U.S., the minister said he was there to correct the negative narratives being promoted by naysayers and opposition on the election.
He said the opposition, having lost in the election were alleging fraud, calling for its cancellation and constitution of interim government.
“We have come here to balance that skewed narratives and to tell the world unambiguously that the just concluded general elections in Nigeria is the fairest, most transparent and authentic in the history of Nigeria.
“The election is the most fair and credible because of the introduction of Bimodal Voters Verification System (BVAS) which I regard as a game changer.
BVAS technology had helped to weed out ghost and illegal voters, eliminate multiple voting and return sanity to the elections.
Relying on INEC report, the minister said BVAS, during the polls worked 97 percent giving unparalleled credibility to the elections.
