Forty-eight hours after the keenly contested presidential election, mixed reactions have continued to trail the declaration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Party, APC, president-elect, after defeating his contenders with majority votes at the Saturday, February 25 polls.

It has been a season of cheers and rejections.

Candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar and Labour Party (LP), Mr Peter Obi, on Thursday declared their resolve to challenge the outcome of the poll.

Obi, on Thursday, against the declaration of INEC, said he won the election and would explore all legal and peaceful means to prove that he won at the polls.

Atiku Abubakar of the PDP advanced a similar position.

Amid the confusion, Tinubu’s camp has stated its readiness to defeat challengers in court.

I’ll prove my victory in Court- Peter Obi

At a press conference in Abuja on Thursday, Obi, in his first public appearance since the conclusion of the presidential poll, which saw INEC declare Tinubu winner of the election, having polled 8,794,726 votes, said as demanded, he would approach the court to register his displeasure over the outcome of the polls.

READ ALSO: JUST IN: Atiku, Obi Approach Court, Demand Election Materials Inspection

He said the polls did not meet the minimum standard to be qualified as free and fair.

Obi, who said he had challenged several election results and came out victorious, said this case would not be an exception as he would be approaching the court for justice.

He assured Nigerians, especially party supporters, that he and his principal, Obi, were prepared to pursue and retrieve their mandate through the legal system.

“On this issue (presidential election), I am challenging the process. I will challenge this rascality for the country’s future,” he said.

INEC failed, election ‘rape of democracy’- Atiku

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar, in the just concluded polls, has rejected the declaration of Tinubu as the winner of the presidential polls, arguing that the level of “manipulation and fraud that attended this election were unprecedented in our nation’s history.”

Atiku on Thursday, in his first media briefing in Abuja, after the poll, described the process as flawed – “a rape of democracy” which he said “must be challenged.”

Atiku lamented that he was addressing Nigerians with a heart full of sadness, mentioning that INEC failed in its responsibility to live up to expectations.

“I hope the judiciary will redeem itself this time and rise to society’s expectation as the last HOPE. Ultimately, who wins is not as important as the credibility of our elections and electoral processes.

“I call on all men and women of goodwill to join hands with us in the vanguard to defend our constitution from the brigandage of anti-democratic forces”, he stated.

Tinubu responds to Obi

Meanwhile, in reaction to Obi’s stance, president-elect, Tinubu, who called on Nigerians to ignore his opponent at the poll, stated that Obi is well-acknowledged with “penchant for spewing falsehood.”

He said Obi’s accumulated votes neither came close to his (Tinubu) at the polls nor did he “fulfil the minimum requirement of our constitution which requires a spread of 25 per cent in two-thirds of the States of the Federation.”

READ ALSO: Nigeria Presidential Election Flawed – Financial Times

In a statement he signed on Thursday, the Director of Public Affairs and Chief Spokesperson, Tinubu/Shettima Presidential Campaign Council, Festus Keyamo, SAN, advised the former governor of Anambra State to stop misleading the gullible, noting that Tinubu won the election.

According to the results announced early Wednesday morning by the INEC, Tinubu of the APC polled 8,794,726 to defeat Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the PDP with 6,884,520 votes.

In comparison, Peter Obi of the Labour Party and Sen Rabiu Kwakwanso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) recorded 6,101,533 in the third position and 1,496,687 votes (the 4th position), respectively.

The margin between Tinubu, who polled 8,794,726 votes and Obi who polled 6,101,533, is over 2.6 million votes.

Atiku, 76, who has now run for the presidency race six times, polled 6,984,520 votes, ahead of Obi, who polled 6,101,533.

Tinubu, Atiku, and Obi led in 12 states each, while Kwakwaso of NNPP led only in one State (Kano).

“It is also ludicrous that Mr Peter Obi is laying claim to victory along with his new-found partner, the PDP, that is also laying claim to victory. I tweeted this morning, thus: ‘This is the first time in my entire life that I am seeing people who came 2nd and 3rd in an exam both claiming they took first and then agreeing to protest together to the examiner to record that both of them took first, yet they are not seeing the contradiction in their actions.’ We stand by that comment.

“The President-Elect, ASIWAJU Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has extended a hand of fellowship to his defeated opponents, including Mr Peter Obi, to join hands with him in nation-building.

“Mr Peter Obi should embrace that hand of fellowship and brotherhood by the President-elect as a committed patriot instead of engaging in this crass grandstanding,” he added.

Although Tinubu, in his acceptance speech which was delivered at the headquarters of his campaign office on Wednesday morning, extended hands of fellowship to Atiku, Obi, and others who contested the race with him, there are enough indications that the major contestants would challenge the outcome in court.

Tinubu said his victory is for all Nigerians after the presentation of the Certificate of Return to him and the Vice President-elect, Kashim Shettima, by Independent National Electoral Commission, Chairman Prof. Mahmood Yakubu on Wednesday in Abuja,

On Atiku’s comment, Tinubu reacted in a statement by his campaign spokesperson and Minister of State, Labour and Employment, Mr Festus Keyamo, SAN, describing his reaction as a “typical fashion of the last kick of a dying horse.”

READ ALSO: JUST IN: I’ll Challenge Tinubu’s Victory, Says Atiku

Tinubu said with all the distractions and fractures in Atiku’s party, the PDP, under which he campaigned, he ought to have sensed beforehand that “he was headed for a humiliating defeat that should have put him a distant 3rd or 4th in the elections.”

Tinubu, who said Atiku’s performance was the best he could get, said his failure to unite his party and manage post-primaries’ fall-out was his eventual undoing.

“Atiku Abubakar’s decision to challenge the outcome of the results is welcome. We are prepared to meet his challenge, no matter the nature of the challenge, anywhere and anytime,” he added.
DAILY POST