Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar on Monday advised the All Progressives Congress (APC) to be ready to accept defeat in the July 14 governorship election in Ekiti State.
Atiku said the APC should emulate the democratic gesture of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which accepted defeat in the 2015 general election.
The former Vice President spoke when he led members of the PDP Governorship Campaign Council on a visit to Governor Ayo Fayose at Government House, Ayoba Villa, Ado Ekiti.
Other PDP bigwigs on the trip to the governor’s office were Deputy President of the Senate, Ike
Ekweremadu, former Senate President, David Mark, former Kano State Governor, Ibrahim Shekarau, his Ogun State counterpart, Gbenga Daniel and Senator Eyinnaya Abaribe.
Atiku expressed satisfaction with the level of preparedness for the governorship poll by the PDP and expressed confidence that the party would win the election.
He said: “We are satisfied that the PDP is prepared for this election. We hope that the APC will accept the outcome of the election. They should be democratic for the first time.
“We have seen how democratic they are, but for the first time in 2015, we have opposition party taking over from the ruling party. We expect them to do the same.”
Fayose alleged that the APC was planning to rig the election “having been rejected by the people,” saying the PDP had already won the election.
He said: “They (PDP leaders) are here because they know that PDP has won this election. Everyone is on the same page with us. The only thing the APC is holding on to is to rig the election. We have told INEC that this is a pointer to the 2019 election. They should save their image.
“The country is bigger than all of us. Let me tell them, if rigging has been tried elsewhere it won’t work here. The people will defend this election. We are aware of plans to bring thugs here to disrupt the election. The people will stand up to them.
“The PDP leadership is in the state today to strengthen our hands and assured us of their support. I want to say that this election is about the people for the people and it must be so. Ekiti election is not only about Nigeria. The whole world is watching.”
