PDP demands withdrawal of Tinubu’s Certificate of Return, cites Section 65 of Electoral Act
The National Working Committee (NWC) of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), on Thursday, charged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to withdraw the Certificate of Return it presented to now President-elect, Bola Tinubu.
Recall that the INEC had declared the former Lagos State governor winner of the February 25, 2023, presidential election, having beaten Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, candidate of the PDP, and Labour Party’s Mr. Peter Obi to the second and third positions, respectively.
Consequently, the electoral umpire, on Wednesday, issued Tinubu and his running mate, Sen. Kasim Shettima Certificate of Return.
However, the PDP rejected the results and called on INEC to cancel the presidential poll declaration as well as the withdrawal of the Certificate of Return given to Tinubu in line with Section 65 of the Electoral Act 2022.
The demand was made in a statement signed by the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Debo Ologunagba, on Thursday.
“The PDP demands that INEC immediately withdraw the Certificate of Return issued to the Presidential Candidate of the APC and cancel the Presidential election declaration in line with its powers under Section 65 of the Electoral Act 2022,” the statement read.
“The PDP holds that its Presidential Candidate, Atiku Abubakar, clearly won the February 25, Presidential election, having evidently scored the majority of lawful votes cast by Nigerians at the Polling Units.
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“Sadly, the (Presidential) election was marred by deliberate malpractices, including the non-use of the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System and INEC’s refusal or failure to transmit the results from Polling Units directly to its Server or Website in flagrant violation of Section 60 (4)(b) of the Electoral Act 2022.
“This violation of the Electoral Act by INEC, as attested to by political parties, voters, Nigerians of all walks of life as well as local and International Observers, paved the way for the alteration, falsification, switching of results and allocation of figures in favour of the APC.”
