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Peter Obi, the Labour Party candidate in the February 25 election, has described the presidential election as the “worst” conducted in Nigeria’s history, admitting being devastated by the outcome.
“We have seen probably what I consider the worst election in our recent history because of the Electoral law (Act) of 2022, which gave so much hope and the huge expenditure we put into technology,” Mr Obi said Thursday morning on Channels TV.
Mr Obi came third in the presidential poll conducted a fortnight ago by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
He polled a total of 5,101,533 votes. Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party had 6,948,520 votes, and Bola Tinubu was declared the winner with 8,794,726 votes.
Messrs Obi and Abubakar are challenging the declaration of Mr Tinubu as the president-elect in court.
Mr Obi said the conduct of the election by INEC portrayed a setback for the country’s democratic process.
He noted that despite the huge sum of money budgeted for the election by President Muhammadu Buhari’s regime, the poll did not meet the expectations of the Nigerian people.
“Do you know what it means to spend over $1 billion? So, there was so much that was promised, and then we went back to what it used to be,” noted Mr Obi. “For me, that is very devastating.”
The former Anambra governor also lampooned INEC over its failure to transmit the poll results on its portal as promised.
According to him, the attitude of the electoral umpire during the presidential election made many Nigerians lose hope in the country’s democratic process.
“Everybody paid so much emphasis on the law and the technology…(sic) when you promise so much and don’t even meet the minimum. Whenever there is an election announced globally, what it does is that it uplifts the ratings of that society,” Mr Obi stated.
He, however, expressed hope that he would get “justice” in court.
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