Nigerian presidential election candidate Peter Obi on Thursday claimed that he had won Saturday’s election, declaring the official results fraudulent, reported The Punch.
The Independent National Election Commission (INEC) declared Bola Tinubu of the ruling party as the winner of the presidential election on Wednesday. According to official results, Tinubu won 37% of the vote, as compared to Atiku Abubakar, the main opposition candidate, who secured 29% votes, and Obi, who got 25% mandate.
“We will explore all legal and peaceful options to get our mandate back,” Obi of the Labour Party (LP) said at a press conference in the capital Abuja. “We won the election and we will prove it to Nigerians.”
He appealed to the Nigerians to remain peaceful, and law-abiding and conduct themselves in a responsible manner.
The opposition parties claim that the vote had been rigged after new technology that the Nigerian electoral commission had promised would make the process more transparent instead malfunctioned, eroding trust.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, described the election as a rape of democracy.
During a press conference in Abuja, Abubakar stated that the just-concluded presidential election and its process were grossly flawed. He said Saturday’s election was the worst of elections since the start of the democratic era in Nigeria. He described it as a raid on the country’s democracy, claiming that the outcome of the election was grossly flawed and will be adequately challenged by the opposition.
He said he hoped the Nigerian judiciary will redeem itself and rise to the expectations of the people and save Nigeria from the carnage of democracy.
Notably, Saturday’s election was Abubakar’s sixth unsuccessful attempt at the presidency.
The ruling party, on the other hand, has urged the opposition to accept defeat and not cause trouble. The opposition parties have three weeks’ time to appeal the results.
