Tension as Peter Obi campaign demands national protest

The Peter Obi-Yusuf Datti Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) has stated that its supporters will not back down from their planned nationwide protest unless the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) grants their lawyers access to materials from the disputed February 25 presidential election.

According to report, INEC declared the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Bola Tinubu, the winner of the election on March 1.

Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, the commission’s Chairman, announced the results, saying Tinubu received the most votes (8,794,726), while Atiku received 6,984,520 votes, Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) received 6,101,533 votes, and Rabi’u Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) received 1,496,687 votes.

The presidential election featured 18 candidates in total.

The Labour Party and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had both rejected the election results during the collation process, before Mr Tinubu was declared the winner.

Both parties have also filed legal challenges to the electoral process and Tinubu’s victory.

They also chastised the electoral commission for failing to post polling unit results on the INEC result viewing (IReV) portal before the results were collated.

The parties insisted that it is part of the commission’s repeated promises and is supported by some section of the Electoral Act 2022.

Yunusa Tanko, the spokesperson for the Obi-Datti campaign council, told the press that they would not back down from their plan to mobilize supporters to occupy INEC offices across the country.

Tanko accused INEC of violating the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal’s order to provide Obi and the party with certified true copies of materials used in the election’s conduct.

“We didn’t set a date for the protest because we wanted to give INEC until Monday to respond to us first.

“But when they (INEC) fail to do what they are supposed to do, our supporters will hit the streets, by the grace of God. “There is no turning back,” he declared.

Atiku Abubakar, the PDP’s presidential candidate, and other party leaders protested INEC last week in Abuja.