After placing third in the election, the Nigerian politician who ran a challenger presidential campaign independent of the two major parties announced that he would challenge the results in court.
On Thursday, Peter Obi told reporters in Nigeria’s capital city of Abuja, “We won the election and I will prove it to Nigerians. The Labour Party candidate reiterated comments made the day before by his running mate, Datti Baba-Ahmed, who said they would file a legal challenge to the election results of February 25 won by Bola Tinubu, whose campaign has rejected allegations that the result is unjust.
Atiku Abubakar, the leader of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, said at a separate briefing on Thursday that the “processes and outcome of the elections were grossly flawed and must be challenged by all of us.” He added that the party will act on their advice.
After he lost to President Muhammadu Buhari in the most recent election, he attempted to have the outcome overturned in court but was unsuccessful.
According to Mucahid Durmaz, senior analyst for West Africa at risk consulting company Verisk Mapelcroft, contesting the outcome is probably a pointless move. “Considering the APC’s hold on state institutions and the electoral laws that make it incredibly difficult for legal challenges to succeed, the opposition’s chance to reverse Tinubu’s victory is very slim.”
Obi claimed that his backers urged him to formally challenge Tinubu’s victory. I’m going to go where I’m told to go, he declared. Within 21 days of the results announcement on March 1st, the LP must submit its petition.
the government’s All Progressives The Congress said it is prepared to face its opponents in court and accused the opposition parties of attempting to “delegitimize the mandate freely given” to Tinubu.
According to the electoral commission, Obi received about 24% of the votes, Abubakar of the PDP received about 28%, and Tinubu about 35%. Because of alleged “monumental disparities” between the official results and the information available to their polling agents, the PDP and LP boycotted the collation process.
It “will go down as one of the most contentious elections ever conducted in Nigeria,” Obi said of the presidential contest. “Our supposed leaders, whom they trusted, have once more robbed the good and hardworking people of Nigeria,” he said.
According to Clement Nwankwo, executive director of the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre in Abuja, if the courts operate properly, they will take into account all the “failings of the electoral commission” that have been brought up by opposition parties and observation missions. On the other hand, “many people think the judiciary could be politically manipulated,” he said.
At the end of May, Tinubu will succeed Buhari after a three-month transition period.
