David Lawani, Abuja
As Nigerians await the winner of Saturday’s presidential election, there are indications yesterday that the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, is striding toward victory and might be named President-elect going by the latest figures released at the presidential collation centre in Abuja yesterday.
Out of the results from 34 states, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, Tinubu was declared the winner of 11 states with 7,984,962 votes, while his closest rival and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, garnered 6,262,798 from 12 states.
Candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, pulled 5,482,828 votes and that of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Rabiu Kwankwaso had 1,482,671.
The results of Rivers and Borno were still being awaited as of the time of filing this report at about 11pm.
*PDP, LP, ADC, NNPP allege malpractices, call for fresh polls
Meanwhile, the PDP, LP, and African Democratic Congress (ADC) have demanded a fresh election, saying the February 25 presidential election has been “irretrievably compromised”.
LP National Chairman, Julius Abure; the PDP National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu; as well as their ADC counterpart, Ralph Nwosu, made this known at a joint press conference in Abuja on Tuesday.
They alleged that Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly elections were manipulated by officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) at polling units by their failure to upload results electronically on the commission’s Results Viewing Portal (IReV).
Abure, who spoke on behalf of the LP, PDP, and the ADC, said, “This election is not free and far from being fair”, adding that there are “ongoing cancellation of results from areas of strength of the opposition parties”.
They declared a vote of no confidence on INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu and asked him to immediately step aside for an unbiased person to take over and conduct a fresh election.
The LP, PDP, and ADC said the deliberate refusal of the INEC chairman to respect the upload of results electronically as stipulated by Section 60 of the Electoral Act 2022 is unacceptable.
The three parties said the result so far by INEC showed “monumental disparities” between what the party agents signed and what INEC officials announced in Abuja.
They said the manual transmission of results compromised the integrity of the election process.
Also, Ayu said the INEC cannot turn itself into a “dictator” and demanded that he step aside for another person to take over.
Similarly, the NNPP joined the other parties to call for the cancellation of the February 25 presidential and National Assembly elections.
The party made this call in a press briefing, saying that a new election should be conducted as soon as possible.
“We must be aware that, no matter the situation in our country all leaders must consider the stability and security of the country as paramount. Our country is bigger than any individual and is certainly more important than any vested interest.
“To save our democracy and our country, the present election results must not be accepted by Nigerians and by all friends of Nigeria. We are therefore calling on the immediate suspension of the announcement of results and the cancellation of the 2023 presidential election across the country. A new election should be conducted as soon as possible,” the National Chairman of the party,” Prof. Rufai Alkali said.
The NNPP made several allegations against INEC regarding the conduct of the election including “a deliberate undermining of the NNPP by INEC”.
Other reasons given by the NNPP for the cancellation of the election by INEC are the display of ballot papers after voting by President Muhammadu Buhari and others which the party claimed is a form of a campaign on Election Day. They also complained of voter suppression, vote buying, BVAS failure, over-voting, “INEC lies about iRev server” and violence.
*Okowa, Datti-Ahmed reject results too
Also, the vice presidential candidate of the PDP, Ifeanyi Okowa, and his LP counterpart, Datti Baba-Ahmed had in a joint press briefing earlier, unanimously called on the INEC to cancel the elections on Saturday.
Okowa and Baba-Ahmed stated this at a joint briefing in Abuja on Tuesday.
The PDP vice presidential candidate, who is also the governor of Delta State, said “it is clearly stated in that Electoral Act that all election results must be transmitted at the polling unit level” and that it is only the results electronically transmitted from the polling units that can be collated at the centre.
“If you have not transmitted those results, it means that you have not conducted elections under the very law that we all applauded.
“So, the right thing for the INEC chairman to do is to cancel the elections,” the PDP vice-presidential candidate stated.
On his part, Datti Baba-Ahmed adopted Okowa’s position. “I hereby adopt the submission of my brother, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of the PDP,” he said.
“Now, we are witnessing the fact that the next government will be built on outright illegality.”
The LP vice-presidential candidate warned the INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu not to promote illegality, saying he should respect the rule of law.
*APC dismisses allegations
Meanwhile, the APC Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) has rejected the calls for the resignation of the Chairman of INEC, Mahmood Yakubu, and the cancellation of the results from the National Assembly Elections.
The APC PCC in a press conference called to counter the calls made by the opposition parties in a news briefing disclosed that the presidential and National Assembly elections were credible enough.
The spokesman for the APC campaign council, Festus Keyamo, said it was “legally wrong” to call for the altering of the electoral process when the results had not even been declared officially.
Festus Keyamo said “They called on President Muhammadu Buhari, to intervene; to interfere with the process.
He added that “First of all, those demands are not possible under the law,”.
The PDP, LP, and a faction within the ADC in a joint press conference earlier on Tuesday, in Abuja, had alleged that the February 2023 presidential and National Assembly elections were marred with violence, rigging, and intimidation of voters.
The parties during the conference demanded the conduct of fresh elections and asked the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, to resign because of what they said is a lack of trust in him.
Keyamo who also doubles as the Minister of State for Labour and Employment said that the request by the opposition parties was totally against the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022, adding that the results collated by the state returning officers could not be tampered with by the INEC chairman.
According to Keyamo “When they (the results) come to the national collation centre, the national chairman has no power under the law to review what all those returning officers have done,”.
He disclosed that all complaints should have been resolved at the ward, local government area, and state levels as against the grandstanding at the National Collation Centre.
Keyamo a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, said only the election tribunal has the power to interfere with the process.
The APC PCC asked the aggrieved parties to approach the court if they had cases they want to be addressed and stop the grandstanding trying to disrupt the process
