Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Atiku Abubakar on Monday led members of his party in a protest to the national headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Abuja over the outcome of the February 25 poll.
Atiku, who scored 6.9 million votes to emerge as the first runner-up behind Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has been alleging that INEC colluded with the ruling party to rig the election.
The party’s national chairman, Iyorchia Ayu; and vice-presidential candidate, Ifeanyi Okowa, who is also Delta State governor were also part of the protest.
Others at the protest include the chairman of PDP Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) and governor of Akwa Ibom State, Udom Emmanuel; the director general of PCC and Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal; and spokesman of the Atiku Presidential Campaign Council, Dino Melaye.
Atiku, who has now run for president six times, was dressed in a black polo shirt for the protest.
The PDP and other opposition parties had complained bitterly that INEC officials at the polling units were unable to upload election results electronically to the commission’s Results Viewing Portal (IReV) through the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) as stipulated by Section 60 of the Electoral Act 2022.
The parties said the results by INEC showed “monumental disparities” between what the party agents signed and what INEC officials announced in Abuja and asked INEC chairman Prof. Mahmood Yakubu to respect the upload of results electronically as stipulated by the law.
They said the manual transmission of results compromised the integrity of the election process and demanded a cancellation of the election and asked Yakubu to step down.
