2023 elections: I won’t congratulate Tinubu yet, Peterside opens up

Founder of Anap Business Jet Limited, Atedo Peterside has described the results uploaded by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) during the presidential election as an insult to anyone’s intelligence adding that he won’t congratulate the President-elect, Bola Tinubu until proven by court that he won the election convincingly.

He made the assertion while featuring on Arise Television on Tuesday.

The Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc founder, however, praised the steps taken by Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar of the Labour Party and Peoples Democratic Party, respectively, to challenge the result in court, saying that whatever is agreed upon in court, Nigerians would accept, especially after the judiciary would have done the right thing and be seen to be fair.

“If they go through this process and the judges convince us that everything was done correctly and we adopt the numbers, whoever is the winner, we will congratulate the person,” he said.

“But for now it is premature; when I can see with my own eyes what INEC has uploaded, it is an insult to everybody’s intelligence; it is premature; people who are rushing to congratulate him have not taken the trouble to even look at the available information or the evidence. INEC is each to its own.”

On Saturday’s governorship and state house of assembly elections, the Anap founder said that the electoral commission can’t afford to make the same mistake that questioned its credibility, competence, and impartiality in the presidential election again.

“It is a chance for the INEC chairman and others to redeem themselves; he should insist that everybody upload the results after voting. We cannot have one or two states hold back the result after voting and start thump printing endlessly and claiming that they could not transmit the result. INEC cannot fail twice. They cannot repeat that same mistake,” he said.

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