The Peoples Democratic Party has demanded for tbe Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to cancel the February 25 presidential election.
The opposition party made the demand when it’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar led other leaders, members and supporters of the PDP in a black-themed protest to INEC’s headquarters in Abuja.
Atiku and the PDP National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, and the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, had led protesters to INEC’s office to protest the outcome of the presidential election which produced Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress as winner.
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The protesters, who were dressed in all-black attires, started their protest from the PDP National Headquarters, Legacy House, around 10 am.
The protest caused heavy traffic congestion around the Maitama axis.
At the INEC headquarters, Ayu presented a protest letter to INEC National Commissioner for Publicity and Voter Education, Festus Okoye, and asked the electoral body to cancel the election and conduct a fresh one that will be accepted by Nigerians and respected by the international community.
Ayu said:
“On behalf of the people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the teeming members of the PDP, we present this protest letter to INEC, addressed to the Commission Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu.
“We don’t accept the charades of what has been presented to Nigeria people as election and what has been declared.
“We, there, call on INEC not only to cancel the election but to re-conduct a very credible election that will be respected not only to Nigerians but also the international community.”
We have no alliance with any political party – INEC
Addressing the group, Okoye said the Commission does not have any allegiance to any political party or candidate, adding that the electoral umpire was a public trust and belonged to the Nigerian people.
Receiving the letter on behalf of the Commission, Okoye promised to transmit the letter to the INEC National Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu,promising that their grievances will be addressed.
Okoye said:
“I have received this particular protest letter on behalf of the chairman of INEC and I promise you that this letter will be transmitted to him.
“If there are remedial issues to be dealt with, we are going to deal with those remedial issues.
“But I want to assure you that this commission is a listening commission. This commission is a public trust and this commission belongs to the Nigerian people.
“This commission does not have any allegiance to any political party. We don’t have allegiance to any political party. We don’t have any allegiance to any candidate. Our allegiance is to the people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. I want to thank all of you for the peaceful way this protest has been conducted.
“The commission belongs to the Nigerian people and whatever grievances there are, we will look into all those grievances. If there are grievances that can be redressed, we will redress those grievances but I want to plead that all of us should continue to be peaceful and all of us should continue to respect the integrity of the commission and also the integrity of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“I am going to go and hand over the protest letter to the chairman of the commission and I want to assure you that the commission will meet over this letter, look into it and address some of the issues.”
INEC declares Tinubu President-elect
Daily Report Nigeria recalls that INEC declared the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, as the winner of the presidential election.
Tinubu polled 8,794,726 votes to defeat Atiku Abubakar of the PDP who had 6,984,520 votes, and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) who secured 6,101,533 votes.
Following the declaration, the PDP rejected the declaration of Tinubu as the president-elect.
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