Lai Mohammed, the Minister of Information and Culture has said in challenging the results of the 2023 presidential election, there was no pathway to victory for either Peter Obi or Atiku Abubakar, the candidate of the Labour Party and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) respectively.
According to the minister, Messrs Obi and Atiku failed to meet the constitutional requirements to be declared president of Nigeria.
Mohammed was speaking in Washington DC, USA, during his official engagements with some international media organisations on Tuesday.
“The constitution has stringent criteria for anybody who wants to be president of the country.
“Not only must he has the plurality of vote cast in an election, he must also have scored one-quarter of votes cast in at least 25 states.
“Only the President-elect (Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC) met the criteria by scoring 8.79 million votes and having one-quarter of all the vote cast in 29 states of the federation,” the Minister said.
Furthermore, Mohammed stated that Atiku who emerged second with 6.9 million votes was only able to make one-quarter of the votes cast in 21 states, adding that Obi came third with 5.8 million votes but won only one-quarter of votes cast in 15 states.
“You cannot win an election in a poll where you came to a distant third position and failed to meet constitutional requirements.
“Peter Obi, while complaining of fraud has not disowned his victory in Lagos,” he said.
Elaborating on his mission to the U.S., the minister said he was there to correct the negative narratives being promoted by the opposition on the election.
He said the opposition, having lost in the election was alleging fraud, calling for its cancellation and constitution of the interim government.
Tinubu and the vice-president-elect, Kashim Shettima, are expected to be sworn-in on May 29.
