Former vice president and presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the last elections, Atiku Abubakar, has described the report of the Economist Intelligence Unit on the election in Nigeria as an embarrassment.
Atiku in a statement by his Media Adviser, Mr Paul Ibe, said the report was like a merchant purchased by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to confuse Nigerians and warned the unit to respect Nigerians judiciary and its judges.
The statement said in part, “What is also obvious in the report is that it is a merchant purchased by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to confuse the country in an uphill task to defend the sham election of February 25, which only retained the ruling party in office.”
“It is disappointing that the EIU would condescend to ballot laundering for the ruling party in the most populous Black country.
“While we wish to express our intention to apply cautious restraint in responding to the EIU on this disgraceful outing, let this be considered as a stern warning to the body to respect Nigeria’s democracy and the institution of our judiciary, and that next time, they should be more circumspect before they jump on any trade by barter jaundiced reports about Nigeria.”
Atiku also accused the ruling party of going cap in hand “begging for legitimacy at all impossible places,” adding that, “a government that goes around to buy anything at sight to award legitimacy unto itself leaves much to the imagination of the people.
“We therefore consider it a breach of due process anything that is being done outside the walls of the court that seeks to make short circuited testimony about the outcome of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal,” he added.
