Use Legal Means To Seek Redress, US Urges Atiku, Obi, Others

The United States (US) on Thursday urged aggrieved parties and candidates in last Saturday’s Nigeria’s Presidential election to use all legal means to correct the anomaly observed during the elections.

The INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, on Wednesday declared Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the winner of the presidential election.

The APC candidate polled 8,794,726 votes to defeat his closest rivals Atiku Abubakar of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who got 6,984,520 votes and Labour Party’s Peter Obi who scored 6,101,533 votes to come third and New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP’s) Rabiu Kwankwaso, who received 1,496,687 votes in the fourth place.

The spokesperson for the State Department, Ned Price, who congratulated Nigerians and the president-elect, Bola Tinubu, in a statement, said Nigerians were clearly within their rights to have such concerns and should have high expectations for their electoral processes in the just-concluded presidential poll.

“There are well-established mechanisms in place for the adjudication of electoral disputes, and we encourage any candidate or party seeking to challenge the outcome to pursue redress through those mechanisms.

“We call on all parties, candidates, and supporters to refrain from violence or inflammatory rhetoric at this critical time,’’ the spokesperson said.

The U.S also called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to address technical hitches surrounding the use of Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) before the governorship and state assembly elections on March 11.

“We join other international observers in urging INEC to improve in the areas that need the most attention ahead of the March 11 elections.

“We understand that many Nigerians and some of the parties have expressed frustration about the manner in which the process was conducted.

“They have also expressed frustration about the shortcomings of technical elements that were used for the first time in a presidential election cycle,’’ he said.

He expressed concern about reports that numerous members of the media were attacked during the course of the election.

According to Price, the United States congratulates the people of Nigeria, President-elect Tinubu, and all political leaders following the declaration by INEC on the results of the February 25 presidential election.

He said that the competitive election represented a new period for Nigerian politics and democracy.

“Each of the top three candidates was the leading vote-getter in 12 states, a remarkable first in Nigeria’s modern political era, reflecting the diversity of views that characterized the campaign and the wishes of Nigeria’s voters,” he said. APC Youth Mobilliser Congratulates Tinubu, Pledges Support