President Muhammadu Buhari has described, as wishful thinking, those suggesting that his government is planning to annul the results of the recently conducted presidential election.
The president said he does not want to create another June 12. He was referencing the cancellation of the June 12, 1993 presidential election won by the late Moshood Kashimawo Abiola, MKO, but was annulled by former military dictator, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC has declared Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the winner of the disputed election conducted on February 25.
The former Lagos state governor defeated his closest rival in the keenly contested election Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and Peter Obi of the Labour Party, LP who have now gone to court to challenge the results.
Some Nigerians, including former President Olusegun Obasqnjo have also called on the INEC to conduct a fresh election, on the basis that the one that produced Tinubu was flawed by irregularities.
But President Buhari, in a statement by Garba Shehu his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, said those aggrieved can go to court, that the government will not cancel the election, as doing so will lead to serious crisis capable of destabilising the country.
The statement said, “The wishful thinkers appeared to assume that the June 12, 1993 election crisis, the worst ever since the Civil War could be recreated.
“Those who sought to do this forgot what the President said at the palace of the Gbong-Gwon Jos, when he went to the city to inaugurate the Tinubu-Shettima campaign: ‘This election will not be annulled; whoever is the winner will be president.”
Shehu assured Nigerians that President Buhari will hand over to a new government on May 29 to serve as an example to other African countries.
