Rigging during polls has helped incompetent persons hang on in office – Peter Obi

Vice presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the recently concluded presidential election, Peter Obi, has continued to lament alleged rigging that took place during the general elections.

He said that the malpractices that took place have ended up helping incompetent leaders to hang on in office and cause more harm to the nation and its citizens.

Obi, who lost alongside Atiku Abubakar, the PDP presidential candidate, to incumbents President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, added that the outcome of the elections has placed the integrity of Buhari-led APC government on the table.

Obi stated this in a statement through his media office where he also said that Nigeria cannot quantify the extent of damage the electoral fraud has done to the psyche of the country.

According to Obi, poll rigging “is the root of corruption as it goes to impact negatively on the political and economic growth of the country.”

He further said that the level of rigging that took place during the general elections has greatly destabilized the country’s democracy and its future, adding that it has considerably dented the ongoing fight against all vices as well as the integrity of those responsible.

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He said, “The only thing rigging does to a country is that it continues to keep incompetent people in office, and as a result rather than put energy in creating jobs to engage its teeming youths, it instead channels it trying to contain all sorts of vices and brigandage.”

Obi, who was a former governor of Anambra State, said his main concern and worry was how to create jobs and engage millions of Nigerian youths wandering about and doing nothing in their prime productive age.

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