Obi: I’m not challenging outcome of presidential election — just the process

Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), says he is only challenging the process leading to the declaration of Bola Tinubu as the president-elect.

Last month, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Tinubu, candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC), as the winner of the presidential election held on February 25.

Obi resorted to challenging the result in court, alleging irregularities by the electoral commission.

Consequently, the court of appeal granted leave to Obi to have access to all the sensitive materials used by INEC for the election. But, On Saturday, LP accused INEC of not allowing Obi’s lawyers access to the materials despite the court ruling.

Speaking in a chat with Arise TV on Monday, Obi said he is not interested in challenging the “outcome” of the election.

He said INEC, as a public institution, should always submit itself to scrutiny from Nigerians.

“INEC is a public institution and it should be open. Because if you do something and people are not satisfied then you should be able to open up yourself,” Obi said.

“INEC has conducted an election and announced the winner but I am only asking that I have access to the materials that were used to arrive at the result. I am not asking you to change what you said.

“I’m not challenging their declaration. Or rather, I am not challenging who they declared. I am not challenging whatever the outcome is. I’m challenging the process by which they arrived at their declaration.

“And unless we do that, we are not going to stop the rascality we witnessed in that election. The process through which people come into the office is far more fundamental than what they do thereafter.

“There is a process of doing things, of arriving at every destination. A process is important.”