Forty-eight hours after the hotly contested presidential election, mixed reactions have continued to trail the declaration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, president-elect of the All Progressives Party, APC, after defeating his rivals with a majority vote on Saturday, February 25.
It’s been a season of highs and lows.
On Thursday, candidates for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, and the Labour Party (LP), Mr Peter Obi, declared their intention to challenge the election results.
In response to INEC’s declaration, Obi said on Thursday that he won the election and would use all legal and peaceful means to prove it.
PDP candidate Atiku Abubakar advanced to a similar position.
In the midst of the chaos, Tinubu’s camp has stated its willingness to defeat challengers in court.
Peter Obi: I’ll prove my victory in court.
At a press conference in Abuja on Thursday, Obi, in his first public appearance since the conclusion of the presidential election, which saw INEC declare Tinubu the winner with 8,794,726 votes, said he would go to court to express his displeasure with the results.
He claimed that the polls did not meet the minimum standard for being considered free and fair.
Obi, who claimed to have successfully challenged several election results, stated that this case would not be an exception and that he would seek justice in court.
He reassured Nigerians, particularly party supporters, that he and his principal, Obi, were willing to pursue and reclaim their mandate through the legal system.
“On this issue (presidential election), I am challenging the process. I will challenge this rascality for the country’s future,” he said.
INEC failed, and the election was a “rape of democracy,” according to Atiku.
Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party’s presidential candidate in the recently concluded polls, has rejected Tinubu’s declaration as the winner of the presidential polls, claiming that the level of “manipulation and fraud that attended this election were unprecedented in our nation’s history.”
In his first press conference following the election, Atiku described the process as flawed, calling it a “rape of democracy” that “must be challenged.”
Atiku lamented that he was addressing Nigerians with a heavy heart, noting that INEC had failed in its responsibility to live up to expectations.
“I hope the judiciary will redeem itself this time and rise to society’s expectation as the last HOPE. Ultimately, who wins is not as important as the credibility of our elections and electoral processes.
“I call on all men and women of goodwill to join hands with us in the vanguard to defend our constitution from the brigandage of anti-democratic forces”, he stated.
Obi is addressed by Tinubu.
Meanwhile, in response to Obi’s stance, President-elect Tinubu, who urged Nigerians to disregard his opponent in the election, stated that Obi is well-known for his “penchant for spewing falsehood.”
He claimed that Obi’s votes did not come close to those of Tinubu, nor did he “fulfill the minimum requirement of our constitution, which requires a spread of 25% in two-thirds of the States of the Federation.”
Festus Keyamo, SAN, Director of Public Affairs and Chief Spokesperson, Tinubu/Shettima Presidential Campaign Council, advised the former governor of Anambra State to stop misleading the gullible in a statement signed on Thursday, noting that Tinubu won the election.
According to the results announced by the INEC early Wednesday morning, Tinubu of the APC received 8,794,726 votes, defeating Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the PDP who received 6,884,520 votes.
In comparison, Peter Obi of the Labour Party and Sen Rabiu Kwakwanso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) received 6,101,533 and 1,496,687 votes, respectively, in the third and fourth positions.
The margin of victory between Tinubu (8,794,726 votes) and Obi (6,101,533) is more than 2.6 million votes.
Atiku, 76, who has now run for president six times, received 6,984,520 votes, outnumbering Obi, who received 6,101,533.
Tinubu, Atiku, and Obi each led in 12 states, while Kwakwaso of the NNPP led in only one (Kano).
“It is also ludicrous that Mr Peter Obi is laying claim to victory along with his new-found partner, the PDP, that is also laying claim to victory. I tweeted this morning, thus: ‘This is the first time in my entire life that I am seeing people who came 2nd and 3rd in an exam both claiming they took first and then agreeing to protest together to the examiner to record that both of them took first, yet they are not seeing the contradiction in their actions.’ We stand by that comment.
“The President-Elect, ASIWAJU Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has extended a hand of fellowship to his defeated opponents, including Mr Peter Obi, to join hands with him in nation-building.
“Mr Peter Obi should embrace that hand of fellowship and brotherhood by the President-elect as a committed patriot instead of engaging in this crass grandstanding,” he added.
Although Tinubu extended hands of fellowship to Atiku, Obi, and others who contested the race with him in his acceptance speech delivered at the headquarters of his campaign office on Wednesday morning, there are enough indications that the major contenders will challenge the outcome in court.
After the presentation of the Certificate of Return to Tinubu and the Vice President-elect, Kashim Shettima, by Independent National Electoral Commission Chairman Prof. Mahmood Yakubu on Wednesday in Abuja, Tinubu said his victory is for all Nigerians.
In response to Atiku’s remark, Tinubu issued a statement through his campaign spokesperson and Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Mr. Festus Keyamo, SAN, describing his reaction as “typical of the last kick of a dying horse.”
With all the distractions and fractures in Atiku’s party, the PDP, under which he campaigned, Tinubu said he should have known ahead of time that “he was headed for a humiliating defeat that should have put him a distant third or fourth in the elections.”
Tinubu, who said Atiku’s performance was the best he could get, said his failure to unite his party and manage the fallout from the post-primary elections was his undoing.
“Atiku Abubakar’s decision to challenge the results is applauded. We are ready to meet his challenge, regardless of its nature, anywhere and at any time,” he added.
