Presidency Mocks Atiku, Obi Over Bye-Elections

…Says Opposition Parties Rejected by Nigerians
…These Results Will Not Stand—PDP, ADC, LP, NNPP Cry Foul

By Franklin Adole

Reactions have continued to trail last Saturday’s bye-elections into 16 federal constituencies across 12 states, with the Presidency yesterday mocking the opposition over what it described as their rejection by Nigerian voters.

Official results released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) showed that the All Progressives Congress (APC) won 12 of the 16 bye-elections, excluding Zamfara, which was declared inconclusive. The APC secured 12 seats, APGA 2, PDP 1, and NNPP 1.

While opposition parties—the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party (LP), and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP)—rejected the outcome, describing the exercise as fraudulent, the Presidency dismissed their complaints as sour grapes.

Presidential spokesman, Bayo Onanuga, in a post on X yesterday, ridiculed opposition leaders Atiku Abubakar of the PDP and Peter Obi of the Labour Party, after their coalition-backed African Democratic Congress (ADC) failed to win a single seat. “How is the market now?” Onanuga wrote, alongside a picture of Atiku, Obi, and other opposition leaders. Though he did not mention names, the taunt was clearly directed at the opposition camp that lost heavily in the polls.

Onanuga’s jab came on the heels of renewed criticism from a former PDP National Legal Adviser, Mark Jacob, who faulted the conduct of the bye-elections and described the outcome as a setback to Nigeria’s democracy. Speaking on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief, Jacob alleged that government security agencies were deployed to intimidate and detain opposition candidates and supporters in parts of the country, thereby compromising the process.

He referenced an incident in Kaduna State, where a female candidate and 25 of her supporters were allegedly abducted during a strategy meeting. According to him, similar arrests targeted PDP candidates in other states, leaving them at a disadvantage.

Jacob lamented that Nigeria had “returned to the old days” when elections were determined by those in power, and accused the judiciary of acting as “a ruling party” in electoral disputes. “The legislative houses that are supposed to checkmate the executive are now just an extension of the executive,” he added.

But to the Presidency, Jacob’s complaints are an afterthought. Onanuga insisted that Nigerians freely chose the APC in overwhelming numbers, adding that opposition figures like Atiku and Obi should “look in the mirror” to understand their failures.

The bye-elections were conducted to fill vacancies created by the death or resignation of lawmakers elected during the 2023 general elections.