The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar and other leaders of the party have led a protest over the outcome of the Saturday, February 25, election to the headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Abuja.
PDP said it opposes INEC’s declaration of the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate Bola Tinubu, as the winner of the 2023 presidential election.
The APC candidate polled 8,794,726 votes to defeat fellow contenders – Atiku who polled 6,984,520 votes. Labour Party’s Peter Obi had 6,101,533 votes to come third and candidate of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) Rabiu Kwankwaso with 1,496,687 votes.
Atiku and PDP after the announcement rejected the results and accused INEC of manipulating the results to favour Tinubu and the APC.
The PDP presidential candidate slammed INEC for not uploading results on the Result Viewing Portal (IReV) from polling units on election day.
He alleged that the election was the worst conducted election since the return of democratic rule to the country, and he vowed to challenge the outcome of the election, stating that he believes the judiciary will do justice to the matter.
“The weekend election was neither free nor fair. Preliminary assessments indicate that it is the worst conducted elections since the return to democratic rule. The manipulation and fraud that attended this election were unprecedented in the history of our nation,” Atiku said.
Others at the protest include the party’s National Chairman Iyorchia Ayu, the vice presidential candidate of the party, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State, the Chairman of the Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) and Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Udom Emmanuel; the Director General of the PCC; and Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal.
