Faith Nyasuguta
Nigeria’s ‘president-elect’, Bola Tinubu, will be sworn in on May 29 despite numerous court cases challenging his victory, Lai Mohammed, the information and culture minister, has said.
According to Mohammed, opposition political parties have the right to challenge the outcome of the presidential election in court.
AEM had reported that the Independent National Electoral Commission declared the former Lagos Governor and the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Bola Tinubu, as the ‘winner’ of the February 25 presidential election.
According to INEC, Tinubu polled 8,794,726 votes to defeat the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar who polled 6,984,520 votes.
The Labour Party candidate and former Anambra governor, Mr Peter Obi polled 6,101,533 votes to come third.
Since the election, there has been an outcry by members of the opposition who said the election was marred by irregularities.
They argued that the results do not reflect the wish of the majority of Nigerians.
Meanwhile, the PDP, Labour Party and their candidates have filed suits to challenge Tinubu’s victory.
Addressing a gathering during a visit to the United Kingdom, the minister said Tinubu would be sworn in on May 29, 2023, in line with the constitution.
Mohammed claimed supporters of the defeated Labour presidential candidate Peter Obi were undermining democracy through their calls for the election to be rerun, according to reports.
He went ahead to describe as a treasonable felony the statement made by the vice-presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Yusuf Baba-Ahmed that swearing in Tinubu as Nigeria’s President would be the end of democracy in the country.
