The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has described as “sub-judice”, a trending report suggesting that the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr Peter Obi, won the presidential poll in Rivers State and not the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Bola Tinubu.
In the report, an online newspaper (NOT METROWATCH) said Mr Obi won the February 25, 2023 presidential election in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area (LGA) of Rivers State, according to results uploaded on the INEC Results Viewing Portal (IReV).
INEC had announced that Tinubu won in the said LGA with 80,239 votes, while Obi got 3,829 votes. Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) scored 368 votes, while Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) got 161 votes.
But, in a chat with Leadership newspaper yesterday in Abuja, the chief press secretary to the INEC chairman, Mr. Rotimi Oyekanmi said, “While the Premium Times reserves the right to publish reports on various issues, it is a known fact that when a matter is before a court, no one, including a media organisation, should comment on it.”
He said what the media house did by publishing a report on a matter before the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal was, “unfortunately, sub judice. It shouldn’t have been done. I don’t know why they did it or what their intention is.
“It is for this reason that I cannot comment on it,” he said.
