By Abimbola Ogunnaike
For what they perceived as electoral fraud concerning2023 presidential held nationwide on Saturday, 25 February, 2023, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential Candidate, Atiku Abubakar; and his Labour Party (LP) counterpart, Peter Obi; said they will seek redress in court.
Thegazellenews.com reported that Tinubu was declared winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for having the highest vote cast in the presidential election held on Saturday, 25 February, 2023.
The INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, announced Tinubu as the winner at the International Collation Centre in Abuja on Wednesday.
Yakubu announced that Tinubu scored a total of 8,794,726 votes to defeat his closest challenger, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party(PDP) who got 6,984, 520 votes and the Labour Party (LP)candidate, Mr Peter Obi, who polled 6,101,533 votes.
Tinubu also defeated the candidate of the New Nigeria People’s Party, Sen. Rabiu Kwankwaso, who had 1,496, 687 votes.
They all spoke Wednesday, 1 March, 2023 after the declaration of Tinubu as president-elect on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The PDP described Tinubu’s victory as “a grave injustice which will not stand.”
Senator Dino Melaye, spokesman and Director of Public Affairs of the PDP Presidential Campaign Committee, in a terse statement on Wednesday evening, 1 March, 2023, said there will be no going back on the battle to retrieve the mandate which he called a “stolen one.”
“A clarion call on all Atiku’s supporters all over the world not to be perturbed. Weeping may tarry till night but joy cometh in the morning.
“This grave injustice shall not stand. The battle to retrieve our stolen mandate is a battle of no retreat, no surrender. We shall overcome,” Melaye said.
Obi on the other hand, has said he would contest Tinubu’s victory through legal and peaceful means.
He said this on Wednesday, 1 March, 2023 in Abuja at a press conference addressed by his Running Mate, Senator Datti Baba-Ahmed.
“On behalf of our presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi, I address you all and indeed all Nigerians on the current situation in the country following the announcement of the purported result of the presidential election held on Saturday, February 25th 2023.
“Please be assured of our determination to fight the injustice that has been perpetrated on Nigerians through all legal and peaceful means. It is our position that the purported result did not meet the minimum criteria of a transparent, free and fair election,” Baba-Ahmed said.
He, however, thanked all Nigerians for their belief in them and for coming out en masse to vote for the Labour Party and for the cause they believed in, which he said was the birth of a new Nigeria.
At a press conference Wednesday, 1 March, 2023, the National Chairman of New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP), Rufai Alkali, said with the way it conducted the election, INEC had taken the country back to the pre-2015 era.
“We are deeply concerned that going by what had happened on election day, the election umpire has taken our country back to the pre-2015 era of election where everything goes: where voters were deliberately and systematically disenfranchised; where ballot box snatching and ballot box stuffing was the norm; where voter suppression was widespread; where violence and vote-buying were the main deciding factors of the outcome of elections; where security agents openly take side with the ruling party and participate actively in rigging elections,” he said.
Alkali said his party observed that “INEC deliberately undermined the NNPP in the process, allowed campaign on election day by the president and others; voter suppression, vote-buying, BVAS failure and over-voting, lying about IReV sever and election marred by unprecedented violence.”
He, on behalf of the NNPP, therefore, we demand the cancellation of the poll.
