In the aftermath of the controversial presidential election held on February 25, the president-elect, Bola Tinubu, is seeking to appease other candidates who have alleged that the election was rigged in his favor, and has set up a reconciliation committee to that end.
The governor of Ondo State Rotimi Akeredolu said the committee will meet the candidates of the Labour Party (LP) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for reconciliation.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Tinubu, the flagbearer of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC), the winner of the election on Wednesday. The electoral umpire said Tinubu polled 8,794,726 votes to defeat PDP’s Atiku Abubakar and LP’s Peter Obi who scored 6,984,520 and 6,101,533 votes respectively.
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Akeredolu said the committee, which is made up of APC leaders, will meet with every aggrieved person, including the candidate of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) Rabiu Kwankwaso, for reconciliation. The governor disclosed this on Wednesday in Abuja, during the presentation of the certificate of return to Tinubu and Kashim Shetima, vice president-elect.
A statement signed by Richard Olatunde, his chief press secretary, said the governor is part of the committee.
“The president-elect has set up committees to meet with the gentlemen who contested in the election for us to start the healing process. I belong to one of the committees. We are going to meet them and appeal to them so that we can work together,” he said.
“This is an election that was not padded. People who voted were counted, that is the way I see it, not one which shows millions of votes. You can see the candidates, everyone won 12 states each, it has never been like that before.”
The move follows the decision of both the LP and the PDP to challenge the result of the presidential election in court. Both the aggrieved candidates and observers have noted that the election was flawed and lacked transparency.
On Thursday, Obi said in his first speech since the result was announced, that the election will probably go down as one of the most controversial elections ever conducted in Nigeria.
“Let me reiterate and assure my good people of Nigeria that we will follow all available legal and peaceful procedures to reclaim our mandate,” he said.
On the other hand, Atiku said the election was neither free nor fair, adding that preliminary assessment has placed it as the worst conducted election since the country’s return to democracy. He said the fraud and manipulation experienced in the election were unprecedented in the history of the country.
“I can still not understand why the electoral umpire was in such a hurry to conclude collation and announcement of results, given the number of complaints of irregularities, of bypassing of the BVAS, failure of uploading to the IREV and unprecedented cancellation and disenfranchisement of millions of voters in breach of the Electoral Act in the commission’s guidelines was indeed a rape on democracy,” he said.
“Having consulted leaders of our parties who are seated here with me and Nigerians in different walks of life, I have come to the conclusion that the processes and outcome of the presidential and National Assembly election last Saturday is grossly flawed in every material particular and as such must be challenged by all of us.”
However, Akeredolu said the election result reflects the will of the people. The governor said the votes recorded by APC candidates in Ondo show the love of the people for his administration, adding that the people “willingly” supported his clamor for a southern president
“Ondo people are progressives and we will always, at least, be on the side of progressivism. From the onset, we were at the forefront of clamor for a southern president and so we have to put everything we had into it and we got the support, that is why we are able to make it,” he said.
With the decision of the LP and PDP to go to court, the possibility of reconciliation is highly in doubt. INEC has been at the receiving end of heavy backlash from thousands of Nigerians registering their displeasure over the outcome of the election. They said it does not in any way reflect the will of the people.