By: Taiwo Amodu – Abuja
The New Nigerian People’s Party (NNPP) has said it was not in a hurry to challenge the victory of the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate and President-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu before the presidential election petition tribunal.
National Chairman of the NNPP, Professor Rufai Ahmed Alkali made the declaration on Wednesday while speaking with journalists at his party headquarters in Abuja.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and Chief Collation Officer for the Presidential election, Professor Mahmood Yakubu had on March 1 declared Senator Tinubu as the winner of the election, beating 17 other contenders.
The president-elect scored a total of 8,794,726 votes, while he also polled over 25 per cent of the votes cast in 30 states, more than the 24 states constitutionally required.
However, both the LP and PDP candidates have since taken a position to challenge the outcome of the election.
Professor Alkali said his party presidential candidate was not in a hurry to join the bandwagon of those who have rejected the outcome of the election.
Alkali who acknowledged that the election was marred with irregularities however said it would be wrong to cast aspersion on the entire process.
He said: “Those who are crying that they have been rigged out are also master riggers. We won’t follow that bandwagon.
“We are consulting our lawyers, we don’t dance around, we don’t do grandstanding. We won’t join those doing road protests like small children. You have filed your petitions, why are you disturbing public peace? We have our own style, we don’t have to join them.”
Reminded that the timeline left for filing petition was running out, the NNPP national chairman insisted that his party would not be stampeded to take a decision.
“If you think 8 days are too short, don’t you know one day is long in politics?”
Ahead Saturday Governorship election, the NNPP National Chairman cautioned his party candidates not to surrender their tickets to any candidate in rival parties.
“Citizens shouldn’t be forced to vote for any imposed candidates. Nigerians are getting wiser by the day, they won’t vote for any unpopular candidate.
“I still want to urge our members to remain calm they shouldn’t surrender to imposition or intimidation. Therefore all our candidates shouldn’t surrender our structures. Those who do that we will take decisive action. Democracy is imperilled when people are prevented from making their individual choices.”
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