Atiku gives Buhari six conditions that must be met for him to accept defeat and end legal action

PEOPLES Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate and former vice president Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has given President Muhammadu Buhari six conditions to meet if he wants him to end his legal challenge to last weekend's election results.

Last Saturday, President Buhari was re-elected for a second term after beating Alhaji Atiku Abubakar with almost 4m votes. Following the collation of the results from all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory by the Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec), President Buhari was declared the winner with 15,084,862 votes, compared with 11,262,978 for Alhaji Abubakar.

However, the former vice president has refused to accept the results, claiming he was robbed of victory through rigging and electoral malpractices. He has threatened to go to the election tribunal to contest the results and has gathered a team of about 100 senior advocates of Nigeria to present his case.

In a bid to douse the tension, the National Peace Committee (NPC) led by a former military ruler General Abdulsalam Abubakar met with Atiku, his running mate, Peter Obi and other PDP bigwigs last night. They had hoped to convince Alhaji Abubakar to accept the results, concede defeat and spare the nation a lengthy legal battle.

Following their meeting, Alhaji Abubakar appeared conciliatory, telling the delegation that he might back down if President Buhari met six tough conditions. His demands included the unfreezing of opposition politicians’ bank accounts, the demilitarisation of subsequent polls, accreditation of voters before voting in subsequent elections, Inec should open its back end server to all participating parties, there should be a release of all politicians detained illegally by the federal government and t here should be no deployment of the military in subsequent elections.

Warning that tensions is building up in the land, the former vice president told the NPC team that the election was the worst in 20 years since the country returned to democratic rule. he claimed that the polls were marked by brazen rigging with no consideration for the will of the people.

Member of the NPC included Cardinal John Onaiyekan, Bishop Kukah and Reverend Father Atta Barkindo. Members of the PDP who attended the meeting included its national chairman Prince Uche Secondus, the director-general its presidential campaign Senator Bukola Saraki and Peter Obi.