Twelve days after the 2023 presidential election that produced the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, as the winner, the pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, has stated that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) illegally declared Tinubu as president-elect.

The mainstream Yoruba group pointedly disclosed that the evidence at its disposal revealed that Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) won the election with the majority of votes garnered.

In a communiqué issued by the group at the end of its special general meeting, held at the Isanya-Ogbo country home of the leader of the group, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, it maintained that the declaration of the result was an affront to the constitution and a breach of the Electoral Act.

According to the communiqué, which was signed and made available to The Guardian by the Secretary-General of the group, Chief Sola Ebiseni, the deliberate non-compliance with the electoral law by the electoral umpire encouraged electoral brigandage at the polling units.

While insisting that the next president must be from the South-East for the sake of national cohesion and peaceful coexistence, the frontline Yoruba group affirmed its support for Obi for approaching the court to retrieve his mandate.

Ebiseni also distanced the group from congratulatory messages being sent to the president-elect under the Afenifere umbrella.

“That Afenifere recalled the sustained struggles of the Nigerian people, culminating in the amendment of the Electoral Act 2010 and the enactment of the Electoral Act 2022 by the National Assembly.

“That the extant legal framework mandatorily regulating the conduct of the presidential and general assembly elections held on February 25, 2023, is thus the 1999 Constitution (as amended), the Electoral Act, 2022, and the Election Regulations and Guidelines for the Conduct of Elections, 2022, issued by the INEC in the exercise of powers given to the Commission by the Constitution and the Electoral Act.

“That Section 60(5) of the Electoral Act of 2022 provides that the Presiding Officer shall transfer the results, including the total number of accredited voters and the results of the ballot, in a manner prescribed by the Commission.

“That pursuant to the said power enabling it on that behalf, the Commission issued the INEC Regulations and Guidelines for the Conduct of Elections, 2022, and in Clause 38 thereof, it provides that “upon completion of all the Polling Unit voting and results procedures, the Presiding Officer shall: electronically transmit or transfer the result of the Polling Unit, direct to the collation system as prescribed by the commission; use BVAS to upload a scan of ES8A to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV), as prescribed by the commission.