The Presidency has insisted that the results of the February 25 Presidential and National Assembly elections is valid, until otherwise proven in court.
It also ruled out any possibility of annulling the presidential elections as was done on June 12, 1993; advising aggrieved candidates of the opposition parties to pursue redress in court instead.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, revealed this in a piece chronicling key takeaways from the President’s recently-concluded trip to Doha, Qatar, where he attended the 5th United Nations summit on Least Developed Countries.
Long before INEC declared the All Progressives Congress Presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, as the winner of the election, the opposing Peoples Democratic Party and the Labour Party called for the cancellation of the exercise altogether, citing irregularities.
In a press conference held in Abuja on Monday, February 27, the Vice Presidential candidates of PDP and LP, Ifeanyi Okowa and Yusuf Datti, respectively, demanded fresh elections nationwide saying INEC failed to transmit results electronically from the BVAS to the iREV portal immediately after collation at the Polling Units.
However, the electoral umpire proceeded with the collation exercise which culminated with Tinubu securing over eight million votes to emerge as President-elect.
The governing APC and the opposing PDP and LP have since constituted their legal teams to battle in court.
According to the Presidency, however, Buhari remained reticent about INEC’s criticism by “wishful thinkers” because he had long decided not to take any decisions that would undermine the electoral process.
“President Buhari not only muted himself following the cacophony, he picked up international travel: “Bola Tinubu’s election stands. If you are aggrieved, and you have the locus to do so, go to court,”’ the statement read.
