Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has rejected Saturday’s presidential election results, saying the exercise was the “worst in the history of the country.”
Atiku, who spoke to journalists in Abuja on Thursday evening, said that the election result which favored the President-elect, Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), would be challenged in court.
“I have come to the conclusion that the process of the election was grossly manipulated…it is the worst in the history of our country’s democracy and the results must be challenged in court,” Atiku said. He also called Tinubu a drug baron.
“Just as I was about to enter this conference hall, the chairman and I read an Austrian news report that a Nigerian drug baron has emerged the president of Africa’s most-populous country,” he said at the press briefing, which was his first since the exercise.
Atiku’s speech comes after Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP), also rejected the result.
Obi similarly said that the election exercise was “marred with irregularities”, noting that he won the presidential election and would provide the evidence for Nigerians to see.
“We won the election, and we will prove it to Nigerians,” he told reporters during a world press conference held in Abuja.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Wednesday, declared Tinubu the winner of the presidential election after he polled 8,794,726 votes to win over Atiku. Atiku scored 6,984,520 votes to come second, while Obi came third after polling 6,101,533 votes.
INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, issued Tinubu a “Certificate of Return” on the same day.
