Nigerian Youth Network for Good Governance and Sustainable Democracy, a coalition of civil society organisations, has encouraged political players in the 2023 general elections to let the presidential election petition tribunal do its job.
Constantine Ikechukwu, Chairman of the organisation’s Board of Trustees, issued this appeal in Abuja on Sunday.
Ikechukwu said it was sad that certain politicians, after pursuing their claims before the tribunal, continued to criticise the election results.
He stated that certain party officials utilised social media, particularly Twitter, to attack, cuss, and disparage opponents, regardless of rank.
“While we agree that the 2023 presidential election was not ideal, there is no substantial evidence to prove that the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, stole the poll in favour of the APC or breached any electoral law.
“After a comprehensive reading of the 1999 Constitution and the Election Act 2022, we are confident that in pronouncing Bola Tinubu as President-Elect at the National Collation Centre, Yakubu just discharged his constitutional duties and did not infringe any known law.
If he hadn’thadn’t declared, he would have breached the law with significant repercussions.
“Thankfully, the law also allows disgruntled parties to dispute the election decision in court, which they have rightfully done,” he added.
Ikechukwu encouraged politicians to embrace sportsmanship instead of crying foul after losing an election.
He is worried about international observers and local civil society organisations making biased and baseless electoral remarks.
Even though they didn’t-didn’t monitor half of the election’selection’s 176,606 Voting Units, he stated similar statements were being made.
“A few days ago CSOs, in a politically driven Report on the election, called the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, to apologise to the country, only for three of its members to publicly dispute with the Convener, stating the appeal was not part of their report.
“Interestingly, while the self-contradictory report applauded INEC’SINEC’S preparations for the polls and acknowledged the immense security and extraneous challenges it faced, the group wrongly blamed the Commission for political violence, acrimonious, monetised party primaries and bitter political party campaigns which are outside the Commission’sCommission’s control,” he said.
He further noted that Mr Olisa Agbakoba, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), congratulated President Bola Tinubu on winning the election but urged him to fire the INEC Chairman.
