Presidential poll: Obi says he’ll challenge process, outcome

The presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, has made a U-turn on his earlier statement that he would only challenge the process that led to the declaration of the All Progressives Congress’ Bola Tinubu as the winner of the February 25 presidential election and not the declaration itself.

He made this U-turn in a tweet posted to his verified Twitter handle Monday afternoon, saying he is at the tribunal to challenge both the process and the outcome.

Obi had, in an interview on Arise TV’s ‘The Morning Show’ on Monday morning, said he would only challenge the electoral process that saw the Independent National Electoral Commission declare Tinubu as the winner of the presidential election and not the declaration itself.

“I’m not challenging who they declared,” Obi had stated, “I’m not challenging whatever…the outcome, I’m challenging the process (through) which they arrived at their declaration.”

“And unless we do that, we’re not going to stop the rascality we witnessed in that election,” he had said.

“The process through which people come into office is for me…far more fundamental than what they do thereafter. There is a process of doing things. There is a process of arriving at any destination. Like I said in my press conference, if you’re going to answer ‘His Excellency’, the process of coming to that position must be excellent. If you’re going to be a Bishop, there’s a process of being a Bishop,” Obi had maintained.

However, in a twist on Monday afternoon, the Labour Party standard bearer wrote on his Twitter page that he would challenge both the electoral process and the declaration itself.

“Following my response to a question while appearing on Arise TV earlier today, I want to state categorically that at the Presidential Elections Tribunal (PET), I am challenging the INEC electoral process that led to the declaration of Tinubu as president-elect as well as the declaration itself,” Obi wrote.

INEC’s chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, had in the early hours of Wednesday, March 1, declared APC’s Tinubu as the winner of the February 25 presidential election to beat Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party and LP’s Obi who came second and third respectively in the keenly contested poll.

(TNT)