The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has rejected the declaration of the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, as the President-elect by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The PDP called on INEC to immediately withdraw the Certificate of Return issued to the President-elect and cancel the February 25, 2023, presidential election “in line with its powers under Section 65 of the Electoral Act 2022”.

The opposition party, in a statement issued on Thursday by its National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, stressed that INEC, in declaring Tinubu as the winner, acted “contrary to the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), the Electoral Act 2022 and the INEC Guidelines and Regulations for the conduct of the 2023 Presidential election.”

Ologunagba stated that the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, won the just concluded presidential poll, noting that the party has commenced an action for legal redress in the court.

He added that the election was marred by “deliberate malpractices”, including the non-use of the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) and INEC’s refusal to transmit the results from Polling Units to its server “in flagrant violation of Section 60 (4)(b) of the Electoral Act 2022”.

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“This violation of the Electoral Act by INEC as attested to by political parties, voters, Nigerians of all walks of life as well as local and International Observers, paved the way for the alteration, falsification, switching of results and allocation of figures in favour of the APC,” he said.

Ologunagba added: “The Commission has repeatedly reassured Nigerians that it will transmit results directly from the Polling Units as we witnessed in Ekiti and Osun State Governorship elections. The IReV is one of the innovations introduced by the Commission to ensure the integrity and credibility of election results in Nigeria.

“It is therefore inconceivable that the Commission will turn around and undermine its own innovations. The Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and IReV have come to stay for voter accreditation and uploading of polling unit results in real-time in Nigeria”.

“By refusing therefore to transmit directly the results from the Polling Units, INEC violated the Electoral Act and its Rules and Regulation, compromised the process, and marred the integrity and credibility of the election results.

“The PDP, therefore, asserts that consequent upon the violation by INEC of Section 60 (4) of the Electoral Act, 2022 and its Rules and Guidelines on the election, the results announced by the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, having not been earlier transmitted directly from the Polling Units before the announcement are ultra vires, of no consequence and cannot stand.

“Consequently, our Party and its Presidential Candidate have commenced action for legal redress to reclaim our victory in the 2023 presidential election.”

Ologunagba, therefore, urged the PDP supporters across Nigeria to remain calm and steadfast in the “defence of democracy and the victory of our Party in the 2023 presidential election”.

The Star