By Adedapo Adesanya
The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr Atiku Abubakar, has led a protest at the headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Abuja.
He led PDP leaders to the headquarters of the election umpire wearing black clothes in protest against the just concluded presidential election that saw the All Progressives Congress )APC) candidate, Mr Bola Tinubu, declared winner.
Mr Tinubu scored 35 per cent of 24.97 million votes cast, 8,794,726 votes, beating Mr Abubakar and Mr Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP).
Mr Atiku polled a total of 6,984,520 votes in the election, while Mr Obi came third in the election with a total of 6,101,533 votes, as Mr Rabiu Kwankwaso of the NNPP came fourth with 1,496,687 votes.
He said he had no intention of stopping the action, which is being interpreted as his rejection of the result announced earlier this month.
“In fact, this protest will continue for a very long time, either every day or any other day,” Mr Atiku said during the Monday protest.
Apart from the protest, the PDP frontrunner has explored legal steps to counter the decision by INEC.
Both Mr Atiku and his former ally and now competitor, Mr Obi, commenced their legal challenge of the outcome of the election on Friday.
The Court of Appeal in Abuja on Friday granted the two opposition candidates access to inspect electoral records of the election.
However, seven PDP states– Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo, Taraba and Sokoto – which had initially sued the federal government at the Supreme Court over the 2023 presidential and National Assembly election, have discontinued their suit seeking a review of the results of February 25 election.
The attorneys-general of the states had filed the suit asking the Supreme Court to intervene in the just concluded general elections. They based their claims on a potential breakdown of public order and civil disobedience.
The reason was due to the fact that the flawed results had already been announced and a President-elect declared, albeit illegally and unconstitutionally.
Business Post understands that since the case had been overtaken by events, it will now be an election tribunal matter.
Modupe Gbadeyanka