NNPP demands cancellation of presidential election results

The New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) has called for the cancellation of the results from the 2023 presidential election, which took place on Saturday, February 25. This demand was made during a press conference held in Abuja on Wednesday, as reported by Premium Times. On the same day, the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu, announced that Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), emerged as the winner of the election. Tinubu received 8,794,726 votes, defeating his closest rivals: Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, who garnered 6,984,520 votes, and Peter Obi of the Labour Party, who secured 6,101,533 votes. Rabiu Kwankwaso of the NNPP finished in a distant fourth place with 1,496,687 votes.

During the press conference, the national chairman of the NNPP, Rufai Alkali, expressed deep concern regarding the conduct of the election, stating that INEC has regressed the country to a pre-2015 electoral environment. He remarked, “We are deeply concerned that going by what had happened on election day, the election umpire has taken our country back to the pre-2015 era of election where everything goes.” Alkali highlighted issues such as systematic voter disenfranchisement, ballot box snatching and stuffing, widespread voter suppression, violence, and vote-buying, all of which he claimed were prevalent during the election. He also criticized the involvement of security agents who allegedly sided with the ruling party to facilitate electoral fraud.

Alkali further accused INEC of deliberately undermining the NNPP by allowing campaign activities on election day, including those by President Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), as well as facilitating voter suppression, vote-buying, and instances of over-voting. He pointed out failures with the Biometric Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and described the election as marred by unprecedented violence. On behalf of the NNPP, he demanded the cancellation of the election results, stating, “To save our democracy and our country, the present election results must not be accepted by Nigerians and by all friends of Nigeria. We are therefore calling for the immediate suspension of the announcement of results and the cancellation of the 2023 presidential election across the country. A new election should be conducted as soon as possible.”