But in a swift response, the APC has warned against any attempt to tamper with the results of the elections, saying Nigerians voted peacefully and massively and know whom they voted for.
PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, in a statement, said the figures were “fake and do not represent the true results, which are currently being collated by INEC, the only body authorised to release and announce results”.
“The APC in its desperation for power has resorted to posting fake results in the social media in a bid to ambush the electoral commission, mislead the unsuspecting public to believe it is winning, all in furtherance of its grand plot to cause confusion and set the stage for violence when the authentic results are finally released.
“We therefore alert Nigerians to be on their guard and close ranks in resisting the APC’s plot to plunge the nation into chaos and anarchy. Our democracy has come to stay and the will of the people must prevail over and above the parochial ambition of a selfish few.
“Finally, we strongly caution the APC against its acts of desperation and use of dishonest methods, including physical attacks against our members and supporters as these pose a great threat to our democracy, the unity and stability of our dear nation,” the party said.
He further denied the allegation that the PDP was conniving with security chiefs to manipulate the results.
It noted in another statement that "They have forgotten that from the polling
units, the ballots are taken to the ward for collation; from the wards they get to the local government and subsequently to the senatorial zones for further collation before they get to the states, all in the presence of party agents and election observers before they get to the national level for final collation.
"It is an obvious fact that agents of political parties and election observers at every level of the collation have the results as they move from the polling booths. We therefore ask, at what level will the security chiefs get involved as the APC claims?
"Our question is, is it that the APC believes it is losing the elections and as such resorted to crying wolf and seeking to use every means to discredit the process, create tension in the polity and truncate our democracy?
Similarly the spokesman of the PDP campaign organisation, Femi Fani-Kayode, in a separate statement, expressed deep concern at the level of misinformation and falsehood that was being peddled around by the friends of the opposition in the media and particularly their paid agents and associates on the social media about the results of Saturday’s elections.
“Since yesterday afternoon they have been releasing fake results and they have been attempting to mislead the Nigerian people and our friends in the international community.
“The public has been inundated with lie after lie about the APC’s so-called victories in virtually every single polling booth, ward, local government area and state in the country. This is not only nonsensical but it is also far-fetched, absurd and childish.
“Two opposition media houses and their associates in the social media went as far as to shamelessly claiming that President Goodluck Jonathan lost in my polling unit and in my ward in Ile-Ife, when in actual fact the president not only won in my polling booth and ward, but also won in virtually every other ward in the four local government areas of Ile Ife in Osun State where I come from,” he said.
Fani-Kayode maintained that the “dirty lies” that these two media houses told were just one example of the gross and irresponsible mendacities and falsehood that the agents and associates of the APC habitually enjoy peddling.
“As we have always said, they are a party of liars that are led and inspired by a small cabalistic cult of shameful deceivers, liars and cheap propaganda merchants. In them there is no truth and lying is their second nature and natural habitat.
“The APC, through their agents in the media, also indulged in many other fanciful and vain mendacities about many other PDP leaders. For example they claimed that Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, who is presently the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Senator Iyiola Omisore, the leader of our party in Osun State, Governor Olusegun Mimiko, the Governor of Ondo State, Senator David Mark, the Senate President, and so many other of our highly esteemed and respected leaders, also lost their polling units and wards to General Muhammadu Buhari and the APC candidates for the various elections.
“Needless to say these claims by the APC are not only false but they are also absurd and nauseating. Such mendacities are indicative of the fact that they have lost touch with reality, as we have always suspected. As a matter of fact we are surprised that they didn't claim that the president himself also lost in his polling unit and ward and that he in fact voted for Buhari rather than for himself.
“Such is their level of depravity and deceit that they will manufacture any lie and assert any falsehood just to gain an edge and feed their vain delusions,” he added.
He noted that the misinformation that was told about the so-called victory of Buhari in Ile Ife, Osun State, was particularly distasteful because not only did Jonathan win in Ile-Ife, the PDP candidate for the House of Representatives in that constituency, Mr. Albert Adeogun, also won the election hands down and defeated Mr. Rotimi Makinde of the APC.
“Our candidate for the House of Representatives in Ilesa in the same senatorial district, Mr. Wole Oke, appears to have won his election as well which is another major blow for the APC in Osun State.
“Instead of acknowledging these monumental and devastating losses of some of their leading members, the APC, in their habitual manner simply continue to bury their small heads in the ground like the proverbial ostrich, live in denial and peddle lies and falsehood.
“It is time that they were called to order. The lies of the APC must be ignored and treated with the contempt and disdain that they deserve,” he said.
Continuing, Fani-Kayode said that the reports that the PDP was getting from the field is that our candidate (Jonathan) was doing very well in the south and north central “and that we are making very strong inroads into various states in the core north”.
“The motive for the lies and misinformation of the APC is to create high expectations for their supporters so that when the real results come out and they are announced by INEC, and when those real results do not tally with the fake results that the APC have told their agents and friends to release, they will begin to run riot, create havoc and kill people,” he stated.
He termed the plot by the APC as irresponsible and dangerous, and warned the APC and their agents in the media to stop spreading falsehood and telling dangerous lies.
He also called on the security agencies to be vigilant, cautioning that when the truth of APC’s defeat finally dawns on them, the APC and Buhari would not take it very lightly.
He asked Nigerians to patiently wait for the INEC to release the official results of all the elections “and until then we call on our supporters and party members to hold their heads up high, to remain confident and strong and to hold their peace”.
While acknowledging that the presidential election is a close race, Fani-Kayode alleged that the PDP was “winning in 23 states and we have 64 per cent while the APC is winning in 14 states and has 36 per cent”.
These results are subject to confirmation by the INEC. However, we are certain of what we are saying because we have information from our agents in every polling unit nationwide.
“No one must test our will by attempting to change these results and the APC should desist from pushing this nation to the brink of fire, chaos and destruction with their dirty lies and propaganda,” he stated.
However, the APC yesterday warned against any attempt to tamper with the results of the elections that were concluded nationwide on Saturday, saying Nigerians had voted peacefully and massively and knew whom they had voted for.
In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said it had the authentic results from every polling unit where voting took place on Saturday, and would not accept anything contrary to those signed results.
It decried the dangerous kite being flown by the PDP through some of its paid media channels, seeking to appropriate unearned victories across the nation.
“We have always said we will accept the result of any free, fair and transparent elections. We stand by that avowal. However, what we will not accept - and which we are sure Nigerians themselves will reject - is any move to rewrite the results and thwart the will of the people under any guise. We will not accept that.
The APC has said there are ongoing plans by the PDP-led Jonathan Administration to tamper with the results of Saturday's elections and circumvent the people's will.
''The information that we have received since we issued our last statement is to the effect that the Administration is holding clandestine meetings with security chiefs and others with the sole aim of altering or scuttling the results, which they consider to be highly embarrassing and unpalatable, using malleable RECs,'' the party said in a statement issued in Lagos yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.
It warned that nothing but the authentic results held by the party agents and all other stakeholders will be acceptable to the party, and that whoever is planning to do otherwise should weigh its implication on the survival of the nation's democracy.
APC said the moves to manipulate the results are also being replicated in some of the states, including Bauchi where everything is being done to reverse the outcome, and Imo, where many aides of the Governor are being brutalised and arrested in hordes.
''We know they are stunned dizzy by the crushing defeat which has been inflicted on them across the nation, going by the results in the hands of our agents. We know they have activated their paid media channels to seek to confuse Nigerians by making outlandish claims that their presidential candidate is leading in the elections. We know they are counting on malleable RECs to thwart the will of the people, and we know they have no qualms about plunging the nation into crisis just because of narrow interests.
''This is why we are putting on red alert all the good people of Nigeria who trooped out in large numbers, defying the sun and the rain and against all odds, to vote for change. We are also by this statement calling on the international community to urgently prevail on the Nigerian authorities not to tamper with the results of the elections as expressed by Nigerians.
''As we have said many times, we will accept the outcome of the elections if they are free and fair. What we will not accept is the manipulated outcome of the polls,'' the party said.
“We have heard of the desperate moves to cancel the results in areas where the APC has beaten the PDP embarrassingly. Nigerians will definitely not accept that,” APC said.
The opposition party said it was aware of the ongoing efforts to force electoral officers and presiding officers in Imo State, some of whom are being picked up by the military, to rewrite the results of the elections in the state.
“We have the results from every polling unit in Imo State and we know that we have won in over 80 per cent in the presidential election. So there must be no shenanigans,” it warned.
APC also said the same attempts are being made in Sokoto, Enugu, Ekiti, Ondo, Lagos and other states, wondering why anyone would be seeking to reverse the results that were already settled.
“In the Nsukka Local Government Area, INEC officials, instead of collating results, handed over the exercise to PDP Nsukka zone to write.
“They holed up inside ADADA House (a local government guest house) to write results and change figures, and were provided with security by the police. APC candidates and agents were chased away. In collaboration with INEC, they refused to let the card readers function and no result sheets came to most polling booths,” he alleged.
APC added that results from Apapa Local Government Area in Lagos were yet to be announced, which it said had been ready since yesterday, “apparently in a move to manipulate its outcome”, warning that voters would not agree with any attempt to steal their votes.
Also, APC dismissed the claim by the PDP that it was leading in 23 states of the federation.
In another statement issued by Mohammed, the party said: "Our attention has been drawn to the claim made by the spokesman of the Jonathan Campaign Organisation, Mr. Femi Fani-Kayode, that the PDP is winning the presidential election in 23 states and has scored 64 per cent.”
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