PDP and Labour Party call for cancellation of polls while APC asks them to go to court if they are unhappy

NIGERIA'S recent general elections have become the subject of high drama today as the main opposition parties have called for the cancellation of the polls with the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) condemning such calls as opportunistic.

On Saturday, Nigerians went to the polls to elect a new president. Among the main frontrunners were former Lagos State governor Asiwaju Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), former vice president Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), former Kano State governor Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) and former Anambra State governor Peter Obi of the Labour Party.

Coalition of the results is ongoing but as of 3.30pm today, the Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec) has officially announced the results from 14 of Nigeria's 36 states. At least a further 15 states are expected to be announced today but from all indications, the ruling APC is on course for victory with its candidate Asiwaju Tinubu, all set to be declared president-elect.

Aware of the fact that the signs are ominous, the PDP, Labour Party and African Democratic Congress, called a joint press conference today condemning the elections. They called for the cancellation of the polls, asked that Inec  chairman Professor Mahmood Yakubu stand down and requested that  President Muhammadu Buhari come out to distance himself from the exercise.

At a joint press conference in Abuja, the three parties passed a vote of no confidence in Professor Yakubu, demanding the cancellation of the presidential elections, stating that what Inec is doing is no more than an allocation of results. They also condemned the fact that results were not being uploaded electronically as stipulated by the Nigerian Electoral Act.

Labour Party national chairman Julius Abure, PDP chairman Senator Iyorchia Ayu and their ADC counterpart Ralph Nwosu, held a joint press conference in Abuja today in which they called the elections flawed. They alleged that the elections were manipulated by Inec officials at polling units by their failure to upload results electronically on the commission’s Results Viewing Portal.

Mr Abure said: “This election is not free and far from being fair. There are ongoing cancellation of results from areas of strength of the opposition parties."

PDP's Senator Dino Melaye and a former Imo State governor Emeka Ihedioha had staged a walkout at the counting centre earlier in the day over dissatisfaction of the collation of process. Senator Melaye argued strongly that without the uploading of results electronically, this year’s election is not in any way different from the manual transmission of results done in 2015.

In response to the gang-up of the opposition parties, however, the APC called a press conference of its own, whereby it said that the opposition only wants the polls scrapped because it lost. APC spokesmen Dele Alake, Festus Keyamo and Femi Fani-Kayode, all condemned the call for the cancellation of the polls, saying that what the opposition should do it go to court, if it is unhappy with the results.

Expressing confidence that their candidate Asiwaju Tinubu will be declared president by Inec, the APC spokesman said the electoral commission is obliged by law to complete the process. They then called for the continuation of the process, adding that if it was flawed as claimed by the opposition, their party would not have lost in several of its strongholds like Lagos, Katsina, Plateau and Kano states.