2023: How INEC did the "magic" for APC, PDP national chairman alleges

• PDP acting national chairman Ambassador Umar Iliya Damagum has claimed that the PDP won the 2019 and 2023 presidential election
• Damagum alleges that the PDP was rigged out of the winning sheet by INEC and that the questions on electoral credibility were yet to be addressed
• The PDP chairman then maintained that the internal crisis rocking the party during the 2019 and 2023 elections contributed to its challenges

Ambassador Umar Iliya Damagum, the embattled acting national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), said the party won the 2019 and 2023 presidential elections but that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) rigged them.

In an interview with Daily Trust on Saturday, September 14, Damagum alleges that INEC did the "magic." He adds that the PDP's internal crisis contributed to its loss.

Damagum claimed PDP won the 2019 and 2023 presidential election Photo Credit: @OfficialPDPNig
Source: Twitter

Damagum reflects on 2015 election loss

Reflecting on the PDP's loss of power during former President Goodluck Jonathan's tenure, Damagum stated that the failure to rotate the presidency after Yar'Adua's term led to internal grievances. Unfortunately, the party failed to address these concerns, resulting in severe consequences.

The PDP chairman said that the repercussions of this oversight led to the defection of several governors who actively worked against the party. Although many returned to contest under the PDP banner in subsequent elections, the party struggled to recover.

He added that despite contentious results, the PDP performed well in the 2019 election. However, he said the INEC's actions raised concerns about electoral integrity. To Damagum, these unresolved issues resurfaced in the 2023 election, compounded by internal factional fighting and contentious convention outcomes.

INEC failed to acknowledge PDP's victory - Damagum

Damagum alleged that the unacknowledged victories in Yobe and Borno states, the suspicious early announcement of results, deviating from tradition and the discrepancies between announced results and iRev system data are concerns that cast doubt on the election's credibility.

When asked if he was sure that the PDP won the 2023 presidential election, he affirmed"

"Yes, we won the 2023 election."

His statement further reads in part:

"It has never been the tradition. We’re talking about two different things here. The results didn’t match what was in the iRev system. At one point, they even said the system had collapsed. They still haven’t addressed the core issue, which is the credibility of the election’s most crucial organ."

Primate Ayodele predicts PDP's end

Legit.ng earlier reported that the PDP had been predicted to meet its final destruction by August 2014 as the internal crisis rocking the opposition gets deeper.

Primate Elijah Ayodele, the spiritual leader of the INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church, revealed a fresh vision foreseeing the party's fate.

Ayodele said there were plans to destroy the party and urged concerned members to devise a strategy to avert the destruction.

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Source: Legit.ng