Group Warns Opposition Parties Against Inciting Statement

Mary  Nnah

 A body, 100% Focus Group Movement, one of the grassroots support groups that worked on market sensitisation and enlightenment programme to mobilise market men and women across all the geopolitical zones in Nigeria for Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu during the presidential campaign for the February 25 election, has warned Nigerians, especially the opposition parties to desist from making inciting statement that may lead Nigeria to anarchy before May 29th, 2023 that the newly elected president will be sworn-in.

This was made known in a statement released recently by the chairman of the group, Dr. Ibrahim Mohammed.

According to him, “The INEC had admitted that its system suffered unanticipated glitches on that day which made it impossible for it to upload the polling units results of the presidential elections on its portal immediately as promised but it began to do so once the technical hitches had been resolved, it is important to state that uploading results on IReV was only an add-on feature designed by INEC to further enhance openness and allow the general public to view the results real-time. IReV was not designed to validate the authenticity of the results. The authentic election results are the ones from polling units that were signed by INEC officials, party agents, and security operatives.

“Unfortunately, the opposition averred that INEC’s inability to upload the results of the presidential elections online as promised on February 25 was not due to technical hitches but rather deliberate human mischief and manipulation to rig the election.

“A scrutiny of the results of the elections shows that it was a close and tight contest which speaks to its credibility. The winner, Bola Tinubu won in 12 states just like the second-placed Atiku Abubakar who also won in 12 states. Peter Obi who came third won in 11 states and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, which for the election counts as a state.

“Tinubu scored 8,794,726 votes, Atiku had 6,984,520 votes while Peter Obi won 6,202,533 votes. The candidate who came fourth, Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) recorded 1,496,687 votes, the majority of which he got from Kano State, his political stronghold in the North. It was however only Tinubu who met the constitutional requirement of scoring 25 per cent of the votes cast in each of at least two-thirds of the states of the federation including the FCT, which translates to 24 states. Tinubu met the 25 per cent requirement in 30 states, Atiku in 21, and Obi in 15.” He confirmed.

Mohammed who led the 100% Focus Movement to appear on many local and international radio and television to sensitise and propagate the democratic ideals of the APC presidential aspirant to Nigerians during the just concluded election campaign, pleaded with the opposition to allow the judiciary to do its job accordingly since several post-election matters are already in courts.