.expresses strong support for credible reforms, prosecution of electoral offenders
By Our Reporter
Lagos State chapter of All Progressives Congress (APC) has declared that the ruling party will not allow the opposition to rig future elections in Nigeria, under any guise, expressing its strong support for credible reforms, including independent audits of election data, real-time result transmission, improved technical capacity for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), among others.
The party gave this position on Wednesday against the backdrop of the recently published independent statistical analysis of Nigeria’s 2023 General Elections, which decisively punctures the long-running falsehood that electoral irregularities were the exclusive handiwork of the ruling party.
The party, in a signed statement by its spokesperson, Hon. Seye Oladejo, while citing the study, conducted as part of a Data Science master’s thesis at Pan-Atlantic University and based on an examination of over 123,000 polling units nationwide, said it (study) establishes electoral malpractice in 2023 was not a one-party affair, with the highest concentration of statistically significant irregularities noted to have occurred in Labour Party strongholds, particularly in parts of the South-East.
Lagos APC noted that, while Lagos State, the political home of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu recorded an anomaly rate of 2.3 per cent, as cited by the report, higher figures were reported in other states, including Anambra (24.9 per cent), Enugu (16.7 per cent), and Imo (10.9 per cent)."
The APC further said the report identified a disproportionate number of "perfect scores" in Labour Party strongholds, which vote distributions the report described as statistically suspicious.
According to Oladejo, the report completely demolishes what he termed as "the tired propaganda" that Nigeria’s 2023 election was "rigged from Aso Rock," saying that what the data showed instead was something far more uncomfortable for the opposition.
The party chieftain said the study suggested that electoral malpractice in 2023 General Elections followed "opportunity, not ideology," adding that some of the loudest accusers were themselves beneficiaries of the very practices they decried.
"The Lagos APC welcomes the study’s broader conclusion that while the 2023 election was neither catastrophically fraudulent nor impeccably clean, electoral malpractice has evolved into subtler, more deceptive forms. This reality underscores the need for vigilance - not selective outrage - as Nigeria prepares for future elections.
"Let it be stated without ambiguity: the APC will not allow the opposition rig the forthcoming elections under any guise, emotional blackmail, or revisionist storytelling. Having failed to overturn the will of Nigerians through the ballot, the opposition must not be permitted to rehearse the same script of manipulation, denial, and post-election hysteria.
"We strongly support credible reforms, including independent audits of election data, real-time result transmission, improved technical capacity for the electoral umpire, and the visible prosecution of electoral offenders - regardless of party affiliation. Democracy is not preserved by noise, street sermons, or manufactured victimhood; it is protected by facts, fairness, and firm enforcement of the rules," APC said.
"The era of weaponising false narratives to pre-empt defeat is over. Nigerians are wiser, the data is clearer, and the APC remains fully committed to defending the integrity of the ballot before, during, and after every election," it added.
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