Express your grievances lawfully, US tells Atiku, Obi
The United States government has congratulated President-elect Bola Tinubu and Nigeria over the presidential and national assembly elections, held on Saturday.
Ned Price, the spokesperson for the U. S. State Department said in a statement that the February 25 poll was a “competitive election” and it “represents a new period for Nigerian politics and democracy. ”
Equally, Price said the U. S. “understand that many Nigerians and some of the parties have expressed frustration about the manner in which the process was conducted.”
The US official said that “Nigerians are clearly within their rights to have such concerns and should have high expectations for their electoral process,” but that political leaders should register their concerns through “established legal mechanisms.”
He warned against “violence or inflammatory rhetoric”.
Two main opposition parties have separately claimed victory in the race. The candidates, Abubakar Atiku and Peter Obi of the Peoples Democratic Party and the Labour Party, individually, alleged the ruling party and the Independent National Electoral Commission robbed them of their feat in the race.
They are reiterating their calls for a poll cancellation and a revote. At separate press conferences, Atiku and Obi said they would seek legal redress.
INEC had declared Tinubu, a former senator in Nigeria’s aborted third republic and, later, two-times governor of Nigeria’s commercial hub, Lagos.
He is said to win 8.8m votes, as against Atiku’s 6.9 million votes, and Obi’s 6.1 million votes respectively.
