NIGERIA’s main opposition political party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has staged a protest in Abuja to challenge the result of the 2023 Presidential Election.
This is coming few days after its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, said the party would challenge the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in court for declaring Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress(APC) winner of the poll.
Speaking with The ICIR during the protest on Monday, March 6, a chieftain of PDP and former senator, Shehu Sani, said it was the right of the aggrieved party members to embark on a peaceful protest, despite the planned lawsuit against the result declared by INEC.
Sani said “The constitution allows you to do peaceful protest as much as it allows you to go to court. It does not stop peaceful protest because you are in court”.
Photo credit: Fatunmbi Olayinka/ICIR
He added that peaceful protest by the PDP shows that the party believes in Nigeria’s democracy.
Also speaking, a member of PDP Presidential Campaign Council (PDP PCC), Kemi Adesanyan, said she hopes the protest will make INEC “change their mind and change what they have done”.
Adesanyan alleged that the presidential election conducted by INEC was rigged in favour of the APC.
“Everybody knows we have been cheated and we know what happened on Saturday, February 25th”, she said.
A Special Assistant (SA) to Atiku on Digital Media Strategy, Demola Olarewaju, said the party will not “give up on the mandate given freely by Nigerians to His Excellency”.
He also alleged that “the result announced by INEC was fraudulently arrived at”.
Olarewaju said the party will explore every legal means to challenge the conduct of the election.
Earlier, The ICIR reported that United States (US) Ambassador to Nigeria, Mary Beth Leonard, said the February 25 Presidential Election failed to meet the expectations of Nigerians.
In a statement issued on Sunday, March 5, Leonard observed that the election left many Nigerians angry and frustrated.
Sinafi Omanga works as a multimedia and investigative reporter at the International Centre for Investigative Reporting - ICIR. He has a keen interest in accountability, health and environmental issues.
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@OmangaSinafi
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somanga@icirnigeria.org