Festus Keyamo (SAN), spokesperson of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Committee and Minister of State for Labour and Productivity, has defended the victory of the president-elect, Ahmed Bola Tinubu, in the United States of America.
Keyamo, led a team of APC Presidential Campaign Committee members to Washington, the US in an international world conference to provide clarifications raised by opposition parties over the credibility of the election that produced Tinubu as the winner and also defend the result and dispel most of the objections raised.
The junior minister stated all that was said via his official Twitter handle.
According to Keyamo, the constitution requires that to be declared the winner of a presidential election, a candidate must secure the highest number of votes and score at least one-quarter of the votes in two-thirds of the states of the Federation, which includes the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
“Only Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu met these requirements especially that of the spread (he scored 25 percent and above in 29 States), even though all 3 top candidates won 12 States each. The candidate of the PDP scored 25% and above in just 21 States, falling short of the 24 States required and the candidate of the Labour Party scored 25% and above in 15 States plus the Federal Capital Territory, making it 16 States,” Keyamo tweeted.
He said the lack of national acceptance by his major contenders, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party, made it nearly impossible for them to win based on the constitution, thereby rubbishing the claims of rigging.
Keyamo, who was accompanied to Washington by Sunday Dare, Minister of Youth and Sports, and Ajuri Ngelale, assistant principal spokesperson, said further that the elections were so credible that upsets such as key members of the ruling party losing their home states or states of strength without state apparatus involvement wouldn’t have been possible.
He said, “It is significant to note that the elections were so credible that it threw up some upsets in our otherwise settled demography.
“For the first time, 20 sitting Governors lost their States, mostly those of the ruling party. Seven Governors who sought elections into the Senate failed to scale through.
“This has never happened in the history of Nigeria. In addition, the President-Elect lost his home State (Lagos State); the sitting President lost his home State (Katsina State); the Director-General of the Campaign lost his home State (Plateau State); the ruling Party Chairman lost his home State (Nassarawa State); the Chairman of the ruling Party’s Governor Forum lost his home State (Kebbi State) and the ruling party lost some of its traditional strong holds like Yobe State, Kaduna State and Kano State. All these go to show that it was a keenly contested election and one of the most credible in our history.”
He insisted that Tinubu’s victory should be accepted as the product of an improved electoral process that used the Bimodial Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) and iRev to sanitize the voting system and wondered why pockets of irregularities seen in a few polling units should be used as a reason to discredit the entire results.
He stated, “The reports of some irregularities and violence in some polling units could not have affected the overall outcome of the elections too.
“There are 176,974 polling units in Nigeria and infractions and violence were recorded in less than one percent of these units.
“How could these have affected the overall results of the elections? Whilst we look forward to an era when there would be no single casualty during elections in Nigeria, however, the statistics show that 2023 recorded the lowest casualty rates ever.
“During the 1964/65 elections about 200 deaths were recorded as a result of election violence; 1993 election recorded 100 deaths; 1999 election recorded 80 deaths; 2003 polls recorded 100 deaths and 2007 polls recorded 300 deaths.
“The 2011 polls recorded 800 deaths, the 2015 polls recorded 100 deaths and the 2019 polls recorded 150 deaths. However, the 2023 polls recorded no more than 28 deaths as a result of election violence. So, the claim that this is the “worst” election so far is totally unfounded.”
On reservations raised by the opposition, Keyamo said that BVAS wasn’t deliberately compromised to alter the results but that it only suffered a few technical glitches in a few polling units, a claim supported by all the local and international observers.
“All the local and international observers scored the use of BVAS very high, with one local body called YIAGA, working in coalition with the EU and other International Observers, saying it recorded 88% success in all the polling units it monitored,” he said.
“The Nigeria Bar Association also issued its report saying only 8 percent of voters were not satisfied with the process on that day. The portal that the opposition made so much noise about, IREV, is just a viewing portal, which has nothing to do with accreditation or verification of voters or even the counting or recording of votes.”
He reminded all that despite all the objections raised to challenge the outcome of the election, the opposition parties have decided to explore the windows opened by the constitution to challenge the results.
“The aggrieved parties have taken advantage of this remedy by filing their cases in Court. We urge them to have faith in our judicial system and desist from spreading false tales about our election across the world.”
He also used the opportunity to invite members of the international community to the inauguration ceremony, which will take place on May 29.
Join BusinessDay whatsapp Channel, to stay up to date
Open In Whatsapp
