In what appears to be his first official media reaction to the outcome of the February 25 presidential election, the candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, rejected the outcome and vowed to challenge the outcome in court.
On Wednesday, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, declared the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, who polled 8,794,726 as the winner of the election.
The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Atiku Abubakar, and Peter Obi polled 6,984,520, and 6,101,533 votes respectively.
Obi, at a press conference in Abuja, claimed he was the actual winner of the election. He said the will of the people had been suppressed and vowed to explore all legal and peaceful options to reclaim his mandate.
“We will explore all legal and peaceful options to reclaim our mandate. We won the election and we will prove it to Nigerians,” he said at the press briefing in Abuja. “We were asked to go to the court. Is that not what they said? So let’s go there.”
He asked his supporters to remain calm and peaceful, urging them to go out and vote in the forthcoming gubernatorial and state houses of assembly elections.
“Please do not despair, we have elections coming up on 11th, I enjoin you to go and campaign and urge people to come out and vote in an election, we still have so many massive supporters out there that we need for our sub national and state house of assembly election,” he said
“Elections have been conducted and results announced as programmed. It is a clear version from electoral rules and guidelines as we were promised. This election as you know did not meet the minimum standard expected of a free, transparent, credible, fair election. It would go down as one of the most controversial elections ever conducted in Nigeria.
“The good and hardworking people of Nigeria have again been robbed by our supposed leaders whom they trusted. However, let me humbly appeal to most Nigerians to remain peaceful, law abiding and conduct themselves in the most responsible manner,” Obi stated.
