Hundreds of protesters under the banner of The Natives gathered on Monday to warn the presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, and the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, against intimidating officials of both the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal. The demonstration was a reaction to the outrage that followed the presidential election, which produced the president‑elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
Controversy has surrounded the election results, in which Tinubu received 8,794,726 votes, defeating the PDP candidate, who garnered 6,984,520 votes, and the LP standard‑bearer, who obtained 6,101,533 votes. Dissatisfied with the outcome, Obi and Atiku approached the election tribunal for permission to inspect the electoral materials used during the poll. A few days later, the Court of Appeal in Abuja granted their request, but INEC denied the parties access to the certified true copies of the materials. The LP leadership threatened to occupy INEC offices nationwide if the commission failed to allow its lawyers to inspect the presidential electoral materials. After the threat of a nationwide demonstration, INEC relented and permitted Obi’s legal team to inspect the materials on Monday afternoon.
Commenting on the drama, The Natives’ coordinator, Smart Edwards, told journalists that supporters of the president‑elect said the intimidation by the “Obidient” movement and Atiku’s camp was becoming overbearing. Edwards warned that if both parties have grievances with the INEC‑declared results, the sensible course is to seek legal redress rather than issue threats that could jeopardise the nation’s democratic process. He said, “Today we are putting the nation on notice that no one will be allowed to intimidate the Nigerian judiciary any longer. The judges and the judiciary are the most crucial part of the hope that democracy holds.”
Edwards further explained, “The Obidients should understand that Asiwaju is a political juggernaut and election strategist. They were all part of the plan because Peter Obi’s candidacy was an asset to the APC. The Obidients made Tinubu’s victory easy; it should have been either Obi or Tinubu. Tinubu was not in the best position to ‘steal’ the election, but he planned well and worked vigorously for the victory.”
He also addressed Atiku, stating, “Your Excellency, it is time to test the courts, not intimidate them. It is time to retreat and retire, or reset and contest again if your party is not tired of you. Your inability to be consistent shows it is all about you alone. The Supreme Court, the Appeal Court, and the election petition tribunal are not about you; they are about the rule of law.”
While commending INEC for a job well done, Edwards acknowledged that no election worldwide is free of hitches. He praised former President Muhammadu Buhari for allowing a free, fair, and credible election that produced the president‑elect. “INEC must be allowed to do its work without molestation. Nobody is talking about the recorded voices of PDP players that went viral, where they were scheming to bribe or corner INEC officials. We state categorically that Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the APC won the election. The loss in Lagos should have been a taboo, but the democrat in him publicly accepted the outcome without calling for anyone’s head,” he said.
Reacting to the protest, Obi’s media aide, Tai Emeka Obasi, argued that the demonstration reflected the ruling party’s usual tactics. He claimed the only reason the party could gather people to disrupt traffic, despite being adjudged the winner of a “rigged” election, was to intimidate. “The guilty are always afraid. If the APC has no ‘cockroach in their cupboard,’ why are they always protesting and pre‑empting things? They should take their demonstration to the INEC office and demand access to inspect all electoral materials. That is where those unguided supporters should have taken their grievances, not on the streets of Abuja.”
Obasi added, “Aso Rock or the streets of Abuja are not INEC offices. This has happened before, and they know who their principal is—always on top of the situation, trying to intimidate the opposition. After all, he has enough resources to make such moves. But the Obidient movement is different; they always strive to do the right thing, as our principal has demonstrated. We also warn that INEC, whatever its game plan, will not succeed in frustrating us. The Obidients are far smarter than they thought. All these issues could have been averted if the commission had done the right thing.”
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