March 6, 2023

The national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is set for a ‘black uniform’ protest match today (Monday) at the national headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Abuja.

The PDP National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu; the Vice Presidential Candidate of the party in the just-concluded election, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State, amongst other leaders of the party will lead the protest.

Channels Television reports that this is according to a statement by one of the party chieftains, Ibrahim Bashir for the Director General (DG) of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council (PCC).

Others invited to the protest match include the Chairman of PCC and Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Udom Emmanuel; the DG of PCC and Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal.

“Governors of Bayelsa, Edo, Adamawa, Bauchi, Taraba and Osun States; Former Senate Presidents, Senator David Mark and Senator Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki, BOT members, NEC members, PDP Senators and House of Representatives Members, NWC members of the party, DDGs, Directors, Deputies and Assistant Directors of NCMC;

“Members of the PCC; Leadership of People Living With Disabilities and all other Stakeholders.”

The statement instructed party officials to wear black clothes at 10 am with the takeoff point as the Legacy House in Maitama, Abuja.

The leadership of the APC, LP at several press briefings from Saturday to Tuesday had called on INEC and protested the manual transmission of results.

The parties said the results by INEC showed “monumental disparities” between what the party agents signed and what INEC officials announced in Abuja and asked Mahmood to respect the upload of results electronically as stipulated by recommended by the law.

They said the manual transmission of results compromised the integrity of the election process and demanded a cancellation of the election and asked the electoral chief to step down. They said the results announced by INEC were “irretrievably compromised”.

Opposition party agents had staged a walkout from the national collation centre in Abuja on Monday after the INEC chief insisted that the process must continue despite that all results were not electronically transmitted.

At a previous press conference on Tuesday, LP national chair said, “This election is not free and far from being fair”.

Similarly, former President Olusegun Obasanjo as well as leaders in the West African sub-region led by former Nigerian President, Goodluck Jonathan; ex-Ghanaian President John Mahama had before the declaration of results called on INEC to comply with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022 on the collation of results for the presidential and National Assembly elections held on February 25, 2023.

However, INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu declared Tinubu as Nigeria’s President-Elect and handed him his Certificate of Return.