Anap Foundation: Obi, Atiku supporters should focus on guber polls, violence is not defensible

March 1, 2023 12:17 pm

Anap Foundation, a non-profit organisation, has asked supporters of the major opposition parties in Nigeria to focus on the March 11 governorship elections.

The non-profit re-echoed the remarks of Bola Tinubu, the president-elect, who asked Nigerians not to resort to violence over their disagreement with the outcome of the presidential election.

On Saturday, Nigerians voted in the presidential and national assembly elections across the 36 states and the federal capital territory (FCT).

In the early hours of Wednesday, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Tinubu, presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as the winner.

Mahmood Yakubu, chairperson of INEC, said Tinubu secured a total of 8,794,726 votes.

Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had the second-highest tally with 6,984,520 votes, while Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) was next with 6,101,533 votes.

Before the declaration, the major opposition parties — LP, PDP, and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) — had called for the cancellation of the election over what they described as irregularities and non-compliance with the electoral act.

Reacting to the development, Anap Foundation, in a tweet, quoted a portion of Tinubu’s acceptance speech wherein he said violence is neither right nor defensible.

Supporters of @atiku @PeterObi @KwankwasoRM etc should now focus on the coming Governorship Elections. @inecnigeria has announced the Presidential Election Results & we agree with @bolaTinubu that:
"What is neither right nor defensible is for anybody to resort to violence" pic.twitter.com/9iMcJ7bUf8

— Anap Foundation (@anapfoundation) March 1, 2023

In September 2022, Anap Foundation released its NOI poll on the 2023 presidential election and Obi was placed as a leading candidate, with 21 percent of votes.

A similar NOI poll in December 2022 placed Obi as the leading candidate with 23 percent of respondents.

Atedo Peterside, president of Anap Foundation, is a known supporter of the LP presidential candidate.

He recently said his support for Obi did not influence the integrity of presidential polls carried out by his organisation.