The spokesperson for the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council, Festus Keyamo, reiterated that the 2023 elections were credible. Speaking alongside Minister of Sports Sunday Dare and others at a press briefing in Washington, D.C., Keyamo argued that the loss of home states by APC leaders—including the sitting President, the President‑elect, and several governors—demonstrated the election’s integrity. “For the first time, 20 sitting governors lost their states, most of them from the ruling party. Seven governors who sought Senate seats failed to win. This has never happened in Nigeria’s history. Moreover, President‑elect Bola Tinubu lost his home state of Lagos, and the sitting President lost his home state of Katsina,” he said, according to a statement released to the press.
Keyamo recalled that when President Buhari signed the Electoral Act into law, opposition parties praised it, noting the complete non‑interference of state institutions in the political process. “There were no reports of security agents or state apparatus being deployed to support the ruling party’s candidate. In fact, the opposition sometimes celebrated that our candidates received no government backing,” he added.
Before the elections, the APC controlled 21 of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, while the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) held 14 governorships and the All Progressives Grand Alliance had one. The Labour Party had no governors or elected officials at any level. About eight months before the vote, the PDP suffered major setbacks: its 2019 vice‑presidential candidate, Peter Obi, defected to the Labour Party with many supporters from the South‑East, and Alhaji Musa Kwakwanso, a key figure in the North‑West, moved to the New Nigerian Peoples Party, taking a sizable regional following. Five of the PDP’s 14 governors publicly announced they would not campaign for or support its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar. In contrast, the APC remained a unified entity, with no departures or public dissent from its elected officials. This was the political landscape as parties entered the elections, according to the Minister of State for Labour and Employment.
Official results showed that Tinubu received 8,794,726 votes, defeating his main rivals: the PDP’s candidate (6,984,520 votes), the Labour Party’s candidate (6,101,533 votes), and the NNPP’s candidate (1,496,687 votes). The PDP and Labour Party have since rejected Tinubu’s victory, alleging irregularities such as voter intimidation and the failure to upload results to the INEC viewing portal. The candidates of Atiku and Obi have approached the election petitions tribunal for redress.
Keyamo dismissed the opposition’s “false outcry,” stating that the Bi‑modal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) did not fail on election day. Major local and international observers gave BVAS high marks, although the BVAS network did experience failures at some polling units, causing delays and, in places like Rivers State, prompting some voters to leave. He clarified that the IREV portal, which the opposition criticized, is merely a viewing platform and does not handle voter accreditation, verification, counting, or recording of votes.
Analyzing the results, Keyamo noted that only Tinubu met the constitutional requirement for victory, securing at least 25 % of the vote in 29 states. While the top three candidates each won 12 states, the PDP candidate achieved the 25 % threshold in only 21 states—short of the 24 required—whereas the Labour Party candidate did so in 15 states plus the Federal Capital Territory, totaling 16. “There was simply no pathway to victory for these candidates, so the claim of rigging is untenable,” he said.
He added that reports of irregularities and violence at some polling units could not have altered the overall outcome. “Our laws provide settled means for resolving election disputes. The aggrieved parties have used this remedy by filing cases in court. We urge them to have faith in our judicial system,” Keyamo concluded.
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