US congratulates Tinubu, asks INEC to fix technical issues ahead of guber polls

The United States government has congratulated Bola Tinubu, the president-elect, for his victory in Saturday’s election.

The US also asked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to address its technical “shortcomings” ahead of the governorship elections.

The electoral body, on Wednesday, declared Tinubu, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as the winner of the presidential poll.

Tinubu secured 8,794,726 votes while Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had the second-highest figure with 6,984,52 and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) polled 6,101,533 votes.

Reacting to the outcome, the US state department called on INEC to pay attention to the technical glitches observed, so as to forestall a recurrence.

The US government also asked disgruntled presidential candidates to seek redress in court rather than resorting to violence.

“First, the United States congratulates the people of Nigeria, President-elect Tinubu, and all political leaders following the declaration by Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission, or INEC, on the results of the February 25th presidential election. This competitive election represents a new period for Nigerian politics and democracy. Each of the top three candidates was the leading vote-getter in 12 states, a remarkable first in Nigeria’s modern political era, reflecting the diversity of views that characterized the campaign and the wishes of Nigeria’s voters,” Ned Price, US department of state spokesperson, said in a statement.

“We understand that many Nigerians and some of the parties have expressed frustration about the manner in which the process was conducted and the shortcomings of technical elements that were used for the first time in a presidential election cycle in Nigeria.

“Nigerians are clearly within their rights to have such concerns and should have high expectations for their electoral processes. We join other international observers in urging INEC to improve in the areas that need the most attention ahead of the March 11 gubernatorial elections.

“There are well-established mechanisms in place for the adjudication of electoral disputes, and we encourage any candidate or any party seeking to challenge the outcome to pursue redress through those mechanisms. We call on all parties, candidates, and supporters to refrain from violence or inflammatory rhetoric at this critical time.”

During the collation of the election results on Tuesday, the Labour Party (LP) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) asked Yakubu Mahmood to resign as the chairman of INEC.

The parties also demanded that the presidential election be conducted afresh.