Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate for the People’s Democratic Party, and Ifeanyi Okowa, his running mate, along with their supporters, have gathered in front of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) headquarters in Abuja to protest. Earlier this week, INEC released the results of the presidential election that was held on February 25.
The protesters eventually blocked the entrance to the INEC headquarters. Since then, the Commission’s security staff have locked the gate.
Udom Emmanuel, the governor of Akwa Ibom State and chairman of the Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), and Aminu Tambuwal, the governor of Sokoto State and director general of the PCC, were also present at the demonstration.
Background
Nigeria’s Electoral Commission announced Bola Tinubu, a candidate from the ruling party, as the new president of Nigeria. It comes three days after observers criticized the election for having many problems with logistics, violence that kept people from voting, and claims of misconduct on the side of the opposition parties.
In terms of hard numbers, the APC got 8,794,726 valid votes, while the PDP got 6,984,520 and the LP got 6,101.533. The New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) got 1,496,687 valid votes, and the 14 other candidates got a total of 666.298. Meanwhile the opposition parties have call for new elections.
Section 60 of the Electoral Act of 2022 says that INEC workers at polling places must upload election results electronically to the Results Viewing Portal (IReV) of the commission. Immediately following Saturday’s election, opposition parties complained vehemently that INEC officials at the polling units were unable to comply with this requirement.
At many news briefings from Saturday to Tuesday, the leadership of the APC and LP criticised the manual transfer of results by calling on INEC. The parties said that INEC’s results showed “huge differences” between what the party agents signed and what INEC officials said in Abuja.
On Monday, February 27, 2023, people from opposition parties left the national collation facility in Abuja because the INEC chairman said the process had to go on even though not all results had been sent electronically.
During a prior Tuesday press conference, the national head of the LP stated, “This election is neither free nor fair.”
Similarly, former President Olusegun Obasanjo and leaders in the West African sub-region, led by former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan called on INEC prior to the announcement of the results to comply with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022 regarding the collation of results for the presidential and National Assembly elections held on February 25, 2023.
In one of the closest elections since the end of military control, he won with just over 36% of the vote. He came in second in his own state but swept the rest of the country, topping six-time presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar (age 76) and third-party candidate Peter Obi (age 61), who had gained the backing of many people who were unhappy with the current system in politics.
Mr. Tinubu now has the challenging task of resolving the country’s severe economic and security issues. Throughout the last eight years, the country has experienced two recessions, a significant increase in youth unemployment, inflation, and a rapid decline in the value of the naira. Ransom kidnappings have spread throughout the country, and armed gangs operate in the north, center, and southeast.
Source – Tru News Report
