Doubting Tinubu’s Victory Because INEC Failed To Upload Results To IReV Is ‘Fraud’ – Lai Mohammed

Lai Mohammed, Nigeria’s Information Minister, said it is fraudulent to claim that Bola Ahmed Tinubu did not win the 2023 presidential election on the grounds that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) failed to upload results of the poll to its result viewing portal (IReV).

Mohammed attacked opposition political parties on Sunday over their reaction to President Muhammadu Buhari’s remarks on the outcome of the election.

Buhari said last week that the opposition lost in the poll due to overconfidence, complacency and bad tactical moves. But the comment was greeted with criticism by different opposition parties who slammed the president for defending a “brazenly stolen” victory.

Defending Buhari and reiterating his position, Mohammed described the opposition as “shameless sore losers” for reproving the president.

The minister spoke in a statement issued on Sunday in Abuja by his media aide, Segun Adeyemi.

“Opposition’s overconfidence going into the election stemmed in part from the blitzkrieg of social media propaganda as well as faulty and procured opinion polls.

“These were apparently meant to hoodwink their foreign backers and a section of the international media into uncritically reporting that they were coasting home to victory, when they were indeed heading into the ravine of defeat,” he said

“President Muhammadu Buhari lived up to his billing by delivering a free, fair and credible election, and his legacy is assured.

“The President would rather lose his state and many of his party’s strongholds than tamper with the fidelity of the election, and that is why he provided a level-playing field for all parties,” he said.

Mohammed further asserted that the presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu, won the presidential election fair and square.

”Going by the results, none of the opposition parties met any of the conditions stipulated for winning the presidential election.

“They did not even come close, in spite of their pre-election grandstanding.

”They (opposition) keep leaning on some international observers to justify their fraudulent claim that the election was rigged,” he said.

He referred the opposition to the conclusion by Mr Johnnie Carson, the revered US diplomat, that the APC candidate “undoubtedly won the polls”.

Carson, according to the minister, co-led the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and International Republican Institute (IRI) International Election Observation Mission to Nigeria.

”They also forgot that the African Union Election Observation Mission to Nigeria said the atmosphere was generally calm and peaceful in 95 per cent of the polling units visited.

“It is on the strength of these reports that many nations, including the US and the UK, wasted no time in congratulating the victorious APC Presidential Candidate.

”The opposition’s insinuation that the failure to immediately upload the result of the presidential election onto IReV affected the credibility of the election is a fraud.

“It is an act of blackmail and deceit by desperate individuals.

”The opposition Labour Party, in particular, will go down in the history books as the first-ever distant third-place finisher in a presidential election anywhere to have bold-facedly claimed victory,” he said.

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