Nobody can stop us from approaching the election tribunal, says the APC candidate.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in Plateau, Nentawe Yilwatda, said nobody could pressurise him against challenging the outcome of the 18 March governorship election at the tribunal.
Mr Yilwatda said this in a statement signed by Generation Next Campaign Council spokesperson, Shittu Bamayi, and made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Jos.
The governorship candidate advised the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to stay away from him until the election petition tribunal completed its sittings in the state.
"A newspaper report and rumours have it that talks are on to stop the party from going to the tribunal.
"No amount of pressure would stop us from challenging the outcome of the March 18 governorship election.
"The Electoral Act of 2022 gives an aggrieved party the right to go to the tribunal where there is a perceived injustice or illegality during the election.
"It is therefore not out of place for us to proceed to the tribunal to challenge the outcome of the election in the face of glaring electoral malfeasance perpetrated on that fateful day," he said.
He emphasised that for the PDP to think that exerting unnecessary pressure and sending emissaries would make the APC withdraw the case from the tribunal, is just a fallacy.
According to him, no amount of sugar-coated promises and enticements would make the APC and its candidate betray the trust and confidence entrusted to them by the people of the state.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
Mr Yilwatda advised the PDP to concentrate on putting up its defence if at all it has any, rather than embarking on a wild goose chase, which at end of the day, would not yield any result.
He emphatically stated that the APC had harvested enough evidence and witnesses to present at the tribunal to prove that the governorship election was massively rigged in favour of the PDP.
But PDP Publicity Secretary, John Akans, described the allegations as unfounded and laughable.
Mr Akans said that his party won the election and was not afraid of meeting anyone challenging the outcome.
The publicity secretary said that his party and its governor-elect, Caleb Mutfwang, believed in the unity, peace and progress of Plateau.
According to him, it was on such premise that Mr Mutfwang extended an olive branch to those that contested against him.
"That magnanimity does not in any way amount to pressuring whoever wants to challenge the election to change his/her mind.
"We are not the ones that advised them to go to tribunal, why should we be the ones to pressurise them against continuing with their case?
"They claim that they have evidence to nullify the election, we have ours and we are ever ready to meet them at the tribunal," he stressed.
(NAN)
