Nigeria: INEC Faults Report On Rivers Presidential Results, Says It's Prejudicial

17 April 2023
Leadership (Abuja)

Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said that a trending report suggesting that the candidate of Labour Party (LP) Peter Obi, won the presidential election in Rivers State and not the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate Bola Tinubu was "prejudicial".

In the report, the media house (not LEADERSHIP) said Obi won the February 25, 2023, presidential election in Obio/Akpor local government area of Rivers State, South-South Nigeria, according to results uploaded on the INEC Results Viewing Portal (IReV).

INEC had announced that Tinubu polled 80,239 votes and Obi got 3,829 votes. Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) scored 368 votes while Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party got 161 votes.

Tinubu was declared the winner of the election.

In a chat with LEADERSHIP yesterday in Abuja, the chief press secretary to the INEC chairman, Mr. Rotimi Oyekanmi said, "While the Premium Times reserves the right to publish reports on various issues, it is a known fact that when a matter is before a court, no one, including a media organisation, should comment on it."

He said what the media house did by publishing a report on a matter before the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal was, "unfortunately, prejudicial. It shouldn't have been done. I don't know why they did it or what their intention is.

"It is for this reason that I cannot comment on it," he said.

Read the original article on Leadership.

Tagged:
Copyright © 2023 Leadership. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.

AllAfrica publishes around 500 reports a day from more than 100 news organizations and over 500 other institutions and individuals, representing a diversity of positions on every topic. We publish news and views ranging from vigorous opponents of governments to government publications and spokespersons. Publishers named above each report are responsible for their own content, which AllAfrica does not have the legal right to edit or correct.

Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica. To address comments or complaints, please Contact us.