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President Muhammadu Buhari has admitted the Saturday presidential poll in which former governor of Lagos Bola Tinubu emerged as the winner is flawed.
Mr Buhari also cahrged Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party and Peter Obi of the Labour Party to challenge the outcome of the poll in court if they have proof that the exercise was rigged in Mr Tinubu’s favour.
“That is not to say the exercise (Saturday’s election) was without fault. For instance, there were technical problems with electronic transmission of the results,” said the Nigerian leader. “Of course, there will be areas that need work to bring further transparency and credibility to the voting procedure. However, none of the issues registered represent a challenge to the freeness and fairness of the elections.”
Mr Buhari disclosed this in a statement by his media aide Garba Shehu, congratulating the president-elect.
“I know some politicians and candidates may not agree with this view. That too is fine. If any candidate believes they can prove the fraud they claim is committed against them, then bring forward the evidence,” said Mr Buhari.
“If they cannot, then we must conclude that the election was indeed the people’s will – no matter how hard that may be for the losers to accept. If they feel the need to challenge, please take it to the courts, not to the streets.”
The president’s speech followed INEC chairman Mahmood Yakubu’s declaration of Mr Tinubu as the winner of Saturday’s presidential election at the National Collation Centre in Abuja.
Mr Tinubu polled 8,794,726 votes to defeat PDP’s Atiku Abubakar, winning 12 of 36 states of Nigeria. Mr Abubakar polled 6,984,520 votes.
Peter Obi of Labour Party, came third, polling 6,101,533 votes.
The declaration of Mr Tinubu as the president-elect came amidst huge protest by PDP and Labour Party, calling for suspension of result collation and and outright cancellation of the presidential poll due to INEC’s failure to upload election results on its server in real time.
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