Keyamo Reacts As Obi Vows To Challenge Presidential Election Process

The Chief spokesperson of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council, Festus Keyamo, has berated the flagbearer of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, over his plan to challenge the process leading to the outcome of the February 25 presidential election.

Recall that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared the APC candidate, Bola Tinubu, as the winner of the presidential election.

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

Consequently, the court of appeal granted leave to the former Governor of Anambra State to have access to all the sensitive materials used by INEC for the election.

Speaking in an interview with Arise TV on Monday, Obi said he is not interested in challenging the process leading to the declaration of Tinubu as the president-elect.

He had said: “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.

“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.”

But in a tweet via his verified Twitter page on Monday, Keyamo said the courts have said that the process of any election is at the absolute discretion of INEC.

He stated that the process is neither in the Constitution nor the Electoral Act, adding that the opposition party lost the case in court.

The Minister of State for Labour and Employment, however, wondered about the reason Obi is challenging the outcome of the presidential election.

He wrote: “The courts have said that ‘process’ is at the absolute discretion of the Commission. Labour Party lost the case in court. Besides, that ‘process’ is neither in the Constitution nor the Electoral Act. So, what’s the point?“