The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said political parties not satisfied with the outcome of the February 25 presidential election have the right to seek redress.
Recall that INEC had declared the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as the winner of the just-concluded presidential election.
According to Mahmood Yakubu, the INEC chairman, Tinubu polled 8,794,726 votes to defeat Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who had 6,984,520 votes, and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) who scored 6,101,533 votes.
However, the PDP, LP, and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) rejected the results of the election and demanded a cancelation of the exercise. The opposition parties also demanded the resignation of the chairman of the electoral body.
The PDP and LP have also gone to court to contest the declaration of Tinubu, as the president-elect.
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Meanwhile, chief press secretary to the INEC chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi, in an interview with The Punch on Sunday, advised aggrieved parties to approach the Election Petition Tribunal instead of asking the Commission to cancel the election.
His words: “The aggrieved parties have a right and an opportunity to ventilate their grievances at the Election Petition Tribunal if they are dissatisfied with the outcome of an election. So far, in the case of the just concluded presidential election, two political parties have openly rejected the outcome and have already indicated their intention to do just that – go to court.”
Oyekanmi also confirmed that the INEC Result-Viewing portal (IReV) suffered glitches during the presidential and National Assembly elections, adding that the portal is now up perfectly.
He stated that the IReV portal would be deployed during the governorship and House of Assembly elections on Saturday, March 11, 2023.
“The technical glitches that affected it on February 25 have now been resolved. It will be deployed for the governorship and state Assembly elections scheduled for March 11,” Oyekanmi said.
