Nigeria’s ‘president-elect’, Bola Tinubu, will be sworn in on May 29 despite the court cases challenging his victory, the information and culture minister, Lai Mohammed has said.
However, Mohammed noted that opposition political parties have the right to challenge the outcome of the presidential election in court.
The Independent National Electoral Commission declared the former Lagos Governor and the All Progressives Congress candidate, Bola Tinubu, as the ‘winner’ of the February 25 presidential election.
According to INEC, Tinubu polled 8,794,726 votes to defeat the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar who polled 6,984,520 votes.
Its on record that, the Labour Party candidate and former Anambra governor, Mr Peter Obi polled 6,101,533 votes which made him third.
Since the election, there has been an outcry by members of the opposition who said the election was marred by irregularities and argued that the results do not reflect the wish of the majority of Nigerians.
Meanwhile, the PDP, Labour Party and their candidates have filed suits to challenge Tinubu’s victory.
Addressing a gathering during a visit to the United Kingdom, the minister said Tinubu would be sworn in on May 29, 2023, in line with the constitution.
Mohammed claimed supporters of the defeated Labour presidential candidate Peter Obi were undermining democracy through their calls for the election to be rerun, AIT reports.
He also described as a treasonable felony the statement made by the vice-presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Yusuf Baba-Ahmed that swearing in Tinubu as Nigeria’s President would be the end of democracy in the country.