Insisting they won the February 25 presidential election, Dr. Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, the Vice Presidential candidate of Labour Party has assured Nigerians that he and his principal, Mr. Peter Obi, are prepared to pursue and retrieve their mandate through the legal system.
He appealed to Nigerians to continue to exercise their franchise, saying that democracy belongs to those who could practice it.
Baba-Ahmed stated this at a briefing at LP Presidential Campaign Secretariat in his first comment after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), declared Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu as president-elect, in Abuja yesterday.
He said: “We ask Nigerians to continue to exercise their civic duties. ”Democracy belongs to the people who can practice it. Nigeria should continue to make efforts to practice it. The only language we understand is peace. Obi and I believe even more in Nigeria and Nigerian people.
“We won the election in the Federal Republic of Nigeria, but they refused to upload the result, they refused to refer to IREV just for them to defeat us.
“It took serving government illegality and constitutional breach to defeat Peter Obi and my humble self.
“Nigerian people are winners and Nigerian people are waiting for a day when Peter Obi and myself, through the rigours of legality and constitutionality will get to power somehow, one day.”
He appealed to Nigerians and party supporters to remain calm, assuring them that their labour to build a better Nigeria where the rule of law shall reign supreme would not be in vain.
Responding to a question as to whether the party planned a legal challenge to the outcome of the elections, Baba-Ahmed said: “Irrespective of the low level of confidence we have in the system, your responsibility is your responsibility.
“Nigerians contested for the 2023 Presidential election through Peter Obi and my humble self, we shall continue to keep the struggle alive, irrespective of the low confidence level we have in the judiciary.
“We had extremely low confidence on the promise of the government concerning the election yet we went ahead with the election. So, it doesn’t matter how low the confidence level we have in the judiciary but the law is the law.
“But there is a confidence we have in ourselves. The confidence we have in ourselves is that the election so to say, did not hold because, from the polling unit, the Electoral Act 2007 as amended provided the direct transmission of the result.”
