Two weeks after the presidential elections, the candidate of the Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi, has again faulted the processes used in the conduct of the presidential election which held on 25th February 2023, also accusing the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for disobeying court order which granted the party permission to inspect elections materials.

Mr. Peter Obi who said he has no quarrel with the declared winner of the election, describing him as someone he holds in high esteem submitting that his quarrel is with the process used in the election. The Independent National Electoral Commission had declared the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the winner of the presidential election ahead of his major rivals, the candidates of Peoples Democratic Party and Labour Party, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi who came second and third respectively.

According to the electoral commission, Mr Tinubu polled 8,794,726 to defeat Atiku Abubakar who polled 6,984,520 and Peter Obi who carved 6,101,533, thereby making him emerge the winner of the presidential poll.

However, Tinubu’s declaration has triggered several controversial reactions from some Nigerians, given that INEC had promised in its guidelines to upload the results of the elections directly from the polling units to the IReV on election day, but had failed to do so. Although the electoral commission blamed technical glitches for its inability to fulfil the assurance it gave Nigerians, the PDP and LP had taken the electoral commission to court to challenge the electoral process and requesting an inspection of materials used in the election.

Speaking on Arise TV on Monday against, Mr Obi described the presidential elections as the worst in Nigeria’s history and a disappointment to the international community. He claimed that, despite the electoral commission’s assurances that the elections would be conducted transparently, the umpire had refused to allow the process to be open.

Mr Obi stated that he has decided to challenge the process by which the electoral commission conducted the presidential elections, saying that the polls were organised in contrary to the stipulations of the electoral act.

“If you look at the last elections, it is probably the worst elections, considering the 2022 electoral law, which was meant to improve our overall electoral process and the continued and consistent promise of the chairman of INEC that this is going to be the best thing that has ever happened to Nigeria and you could see it in all the editorials all the international newspapers have questioned the rating of the country and for me, in particular, it is one of the sadness that 63 years after Nigeria Independence, we cannot conduct simple elections, despite all the promises.

“This election was predicated and planned and we have clear laws about the conduct of the elections if it was followed, if this result were uploaded from the polling units to the server as they said, we would not be here, we would not be talking about it, it would have been concluded in a matter of hours, without anybody arguing about it, it is not God’s wish to do the wrong things”, he said.

Mr Peter Obi also decried the electoral commission’s refusal to obey court order which availed him the right to have access to the election materials, indicating that such action amounts to rascality in the system and ought to be eradicated by introducing transparency into the electioneering process.

Speaking on how he intended to reclaim his mandate, Peter Obi stated that he would continue to use legal means to reclaim his position as the presidential election winner. He also stated that his political party may also take to the street to protest if the electoral commission refuses to obey the court’s order.

“INEC is a public institution sustained by taxpayers’ money. And I believe there is a law about public institutions if there is anything, they should be open because they conducted the election it is like that everywhere if you do something and people are satisfied you should be able to open up yourself. INEC is an institution backed by law, the court has given an order, a ruling and they are not obeying it, where do we start to build a nation

“This is not the first time I am going to court with INECand since 2003, several times I have had to challenge INEC’s result. You have conducted the elections and you have declared the winner, I am only asking that can I have access to the document and materials that you used to arrive at that, I am not asking you to change what you said. I am not challenging who they declared, I am not challenging whatever the outcome I am challenging the process by which they arrive at their declaration. And unless we do that we are not going to stop the rascality we witness in that election.

“We will follow the law, and we will go back to the court and say that what you granted these people are not obeying it we will do whatever is necessary within the law, whatever we are going to do would be in the interest of the country, but they would give us access because they pronounced and declared somebody, so we must have access to the process which they arrive at”.