…says Obi will speak in due time
The vice presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in last Saturday’s presidential election, Datti Baba-Ahmed, on Wednesday called for calm after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as winner of the election.
INEC declared Tinubu winner in the early hours of Wednesday after he scored a total of 8,794,726 votes to defeat former vice president Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), who polled 6,984,520 votes, Peter Obi of the Labour Party, who scored 6,101,533 votes, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) with 1,496,687 votes, and 14 other candidates who took part in the election.
The Labour Party has since rejected the outcome of the polls, with the party’s supporters alleging the exercise was compromised.
Speaking at a press conference in Abuja on Wednesday, Baba-Ahmed insisted that the election was not free and fair but assured the Obi-Datti and Labour Party supporters that they would seek legal redress.
He urged the party’s supporters to vote for the party in the governorship and state house of assembly elections coming up March 11, 2023.
Tinubu had, in an acceptance speech earlier, extended a hand of friendship to his fellow candidates, urging those of them who may “be hard put to accept the election results” to seek legal redress.
“It is your right to seek legal recourse. What is neither right nor defensible is for anybody to resort to violence. Any challenge to the electoral outcome should be made in a court of law, and not in the streets,” Tinubu said.
Obi, the LP presidential candidate, has yet to speak since the final results were announced, but Baba-Ahmed said Obi would speak in due time.
The LP vice presidential candidate called on the judiciary to prove itself to be impartial when the case gets to the court, wondering how the results for the presidential and National Assembly elections were collated when they weren’t transmitted electronically.
He said that no amount of pressure would get the Labour Party or its agents to preach against peace and that they still have hope in Nigeria despite the outcome of the poll.
Baba-Ahmed said the party would continue to hold the President Muhammadu Buhari administration accountable for a free and credible election and remained optimistic of a great outing at the forthcoming governorship and House of Assembly elections.
He dismissed speculations of a merger with the PDP, insisting that the party was fighting for its mandate alone.
