Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP) candidate in the 2023 Presidential election, on Sunday, lampooned the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) over its predictions on the 2023 general election.
Atiku, in a statement titled “Economist Intelligence Unit Prediction: When Brigandage Meets Mercantilism”, described the report as “an embarrassment to the think tank body”.
EIU had in its reports predicted that the victory of President Bola Tinubu in the February 25 presidential election will not be upturned by the court.
The report, coming ahead of the expected ruling on the petitions filed by the PDP and Labour Party, is seen by the PDP candidate as attempt by the ruling All Progressive Congress ( APC) to use it influence the coming judgement.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had in February, declared Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the APC, as the winner of the last presidential election.
INEC had declared that Tinubu defeated 17 other candidates who took part in the election, scoring a total of 8,794,726 votes to emerge victorious. INEC said the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar came second with a total of 6,984,520 votes in the election.
Obi came third in the election with a total of 6,101,533 votes while Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria’s People Party (NNPP) came fourth with 1,496,687 votes.
Following their rejection of the INEC results, both Atiku and Obi are challenging Tinubu’s victory at the Presidential Election Petitions Court.
Atiku in the statement stated that haven careful studied the report by the Economist Intelligence Unit, he regrets to say that the report is an embarrassment to the think tank body.
“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.
“Notwithstanding the preponderance of salient issues raised on the credibility of the so-called election by local and foreign observers, 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.
“However, to the APC that is going cap in hand begging for legitimacy at all impossible places, we wish to remind them of a popular local proverb that: “he who steals a drum from the palace carries the unenviable burden of where to beat it.”
“A government that goes around to buy anything at sight to award legitimacy unto itself leaves much to the imagination of the people.
Atiku also noted that President Tinubu and his team of lawyers had all the opportunity at the court to present his case of legitimacy before the parties closed their cases at the election petition tribunal.
But, according to him, “rather than explore that opportunity, his lawyers were busy signing counter motions on subpoenas that seek to shed more light on his personal information.
“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”.
