Yola Bishop cautions against forcing Atiku to accept congratulate Buhari

Catholic Bishop of Yola Diocese, Stephen Mamza, has cautioned against forcing former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar to congratulate President Muhammadu Buhari, the declared winner of the Saturday presidential election conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission.

Atiku should not be forced into accepting the outcome of the election if he does not believe in the result of poll declared by the INEC, the bishop advised.

He noted that Atiku, who had expressed his determination to seek legal redress over the outcome of the polls would contradict himself if he went ahead to congratulate the President over his re-election.

He however cautioned losers in the election against taking laws into their hands and advised those unsatisfied with the outcome of the polls to seek legal redress.

He also called on the INEC and security agencies to allow the peoples’ vote to count in the forthcoming governorship and state assembly elections.

He said, “If he (Atiku) does not believe in the outcome of the polls, he should not be forced to congratulate him. It is left for him, he has the final say. I understand that he’s taking legal actions. If he’s taking legal action, it means that he does not believe in the results. How then can he congratulate him (Buhari)? He will be contradicting himself if he does so.”

On the conduct of the elections, he lamented that he had to wait for over two hours for a faulty card reader to be fixed.

But the Secretary of the Adamawa State chapter of the All Progressives Congress called on Atiku to accept the outcome of the poll.