“Peter Obi Won Nigeria’s Presidential Election”,  Afenifere Insists

By Gideon Njoku

Appreciates International Community In a Communiqué it issued after its monthly meeting, the apex Yoruba Socio-cultural Organisation, Afenifere, said that the Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, won Nigeria’s Presidential Election.

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC,  declared the Candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Bola Tinubu the winner, and so President-elect in the election held on 25th February 2023.

Even though the three frontline Candidates, Tinubu, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and Obi, all won the same number of States – 12 each – Tinubu was declared winner based on the number  of  votes he garnered.

But Afenifere differs. It insists that Obi won the contest. The Organisation reiterated that: “The results of the lawful votes at the Presidential Election available to the Afenifere through credible sources, confirm that Peter Obi, the Presidential of the Labour Party, won the said election and we, thus, support his decision challenging the contrary declaration by the INEC.”

Afenifere agreed that the election was froth by violence and unprecedented malpractices. It said it condemns “in strongest terms, the campaigns of calumny and acts of ethnic violence deployed by some politicians and their hired criminal gangs in several parts of the Federation during the Gubernatorial Election, particularly, Lagos State where the election was made to appear like an inter-ethnic war between the Yoruba and Igbo which greatly led to voters’ suppression and other forms of deliberate disenfranchisement through brigandage.”

The Organisation expressed its “belief in the Judiciary as an integral part of the democratic process and expect that it will prove itself in the election litigations now pending before it without fear or favour and in accordance with the judicial oaths of its members, in covenant with the Nigerian people.”

Afenifere, also, appreciated what it described as “the genuine and renewed interests of the International  Community in the security and democratic health of Nigeria and urged that, as a prominent member of the Global Community, the affairs of Nigeria should continue to be of concern to the world.”

The Communique was signed by Afenifere Leader, Chief Ayo Adebanjo and Secretary General, Chief Sola Ebiseni.