Gumi Accuses INEC of Illegal Actions in Declaring Tinubu as President-elect

Islamic cleric Sheikh Ahmad Gumi has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of failing to follow its own guidelines in conducting the just concluded presidential and federal parliamentary elections, which he said has led to distrust and suspicion among Nigerians. In a post on his Facebook page on Thursday morning, Gumi called on candidates who lost in the presidential election to seek redress in court and not resort to violence.

INEC chairman Mahmood Yakubu declared Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress as the winner of Saturday’s presidential election in the early hours of Wednesday at the National Collation Centre in Abuja. 

The declaration of Mr Tinubu as the president-elect came amidst huge protests by the opposition parties, PDP and Labour Party, who called for the suspension of result collation and outright cancellation of the presidential poll due to INEC’s failure to upload election results on its server in real-time.

Mr Tinubu dismissed the calls for cancellation, saying the few cases of ballot box snatching and violence experienced during the election are “immaterial” to challenge his victory at the polls. Tinubu polled 8,794,726 votes to defeat PDP’s Atiku Abubakar, winning 12 of 36 states of Nigeria. Mr Abubakar had 6,984,520 votes, and Peter Obi of the Labour Party polled 6,101,533 votes. They both also won 12 states each. 

However, Sheikh Gumi's accusations against INEC and his call for legal action by opposition parties raise questions about the legitimacy of Tinubu's victory, which may lead to further political tension and uncertainty in the country.