Despite allegations of widespread irregularities by opposition parties, President Muhammadu Buhari has ruled out annulling the country’s presidential election.
Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu was declared the winner of the February 25 election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on March 1 after polling 8, 794, 726 votes to defeat the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and 16 others.
However, Atiku and his Labour Party counterpart, Peter Obi,l rejected the election results and vowed to challenge them in court.
Afenifere, the apex Yoruba socio-cultural group, and its South-East counterpart, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, had also rejected the results, claiming that Obi had won the election.
In a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, on Thursday, the president urged disgruntled candidates and their parties to seek redress in court.
He described the calls for the election to be annulled as “wishful thinking.”
The statement read: “Bola Tinubu’s election stands. If you are aggrieved, and you have the locus to do so, go to court.
“The wishful thinkers appeared to assume that the June 12, 1993 election crisis, the worst ever since the Civil War could be recreated.
“Those who sought to do this forgot what the President said at the palace of the Gbong-Gwon Jos when he went to the city to inaugurate the Tinubu-Shettima campaign: ‘this election will not be annulled; whoever is the winner will be president.
“The President dismissed criticisms of INEC as mere attempts to poison public opinions against the electoral umpire. He maintained to World leaders in Qatar that he would hand over to a new president on May 29, 2023.”
