Peter Okoye, PBA Journalism Mentee
The leader of Afenifere, Pa Ayo Adebanjo, has described the 25th February presidential election as “a daylight robbery”, insisting that the decision of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will not stand.
Adebanjo made this claim when he appeared on Arise TV on Friday.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelHe maintained that the decision of INEC on the winner of Saturday’s presidential polls will not stand.
The elder statesman who publicly declared support for the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, is of the view that the Southeast regoin should be given a chance at the presidency for the sake of equity and fairness.
The Electoral Commission had on March 1, declared Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) the winner of the February 25th, 2023 presidential election notwithstanding the alleged wide range of irregularities across the country, especially the inability of the INEC to stick to its guidelines, particularly electronic transmission of results from polling units to the central server.
According to official results announced by INEC, Tinubu polled 8.8 million votes to beat his closest rivals, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party and Peter Obi of the Labour Party.
Pa Adebanjo said that some Governors took advantage of the failed BVAS to hijack the election and suppressed the will of the people, especially in Rivers and the Lagos States.
“I listened to the Chairman of INEC when Dino Melaye told him to suspend, not cancel the collation, citing a lot of irregularities so that he can correct them. He said ‘no I promise, if you let me complete this exercise, I’ll review it.
“As for the Chairman, those of us who know him know that he has not been the man that he should be. He’s a great disappointment. This is not the first time he would be disappointing Lagos people. In 2019, he deceived us and now he’s done it again thinking that Nigerian people are fools.
“And I said it before that in this election, nobody can Babangida us. It was a daylight robbery. The whole country supported you to amend the electoral law to ensure it is transmitted electronically and at the time of the election you came back to fight us. What a shame. I’m only sorry for the country,” the Afenifere leader said.
