The Archbishop Emeritus, Catholic Archdiocese of Abuja, John Cardinal Onaiyekan, has denied asking Nigerians to “accept” the results of the presidential election which produced Bola Tinubu, as the president-elect.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), had announced Mr Tinubu, the candidate of the governing All Progressives Congress (APC), as the winner of the February 25 election exercise.

The electoral commission said Mr Tinubu, a two-term former governor of Lagos, defeated his main challenger in the election, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) after he polled 8,794,726 votes.

INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, who announced the final results in the early hours of Wednesday in Abuja, said Mr Abubakar came second in the last weekend exercise after scoring 6,984,520 votes while Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP), came third with a total of 6,101,533 votes.

But speaking, Mr Onaiyekan described the outcome of the exercise as “tragically questionable results” most especially the “consequent legitimacy” of Mr Tinubu, who was declared the winner by INEC in last Saturday’s exercise.

“After a tragically questionable election. His Eminence blatantly refuses to be drafted into boosting a non-existing credibility of results and its consequent legitimacy of the declared winner. His Eminence is a firm lover of peace, but Never at the expense of TRUTH, AND JUSTICE. God bless Nigeria,” he said in a statement signed by his personal secretary, Emmanuel Adugba, on Friday, to deny a report that he urged Nigerians to accept the result of the 2023 poll.

Recall that earlier before the election, Mr Onaiyekan had on several occasions stated that he would not support a Muslim-Muslin ticket in the 2023 presidential elections.

Although, he described the same-faith presidential ticket of the APC as a calculation by the party to win the election but was quick to opine that Nigerians would determine the pattern of voting in choosing their next leader.

The Archbishop Emeritus had spoken at the First Synod of the Catholic Diocese of Osogbo held at the St. Kizito Pastoral Centre, Ede, Osun on October 2, 2022.

At the programme, the clergyman explained that like other Nigerians would have to take their own decision on the political party to vote for, he specifically declared that he would never vote for a Muslim-Muslim ticket.

Mr Tinubu and his Vice, Kashim Shetimma, both Muslims, have now been declared as winners of the Saturday poll by INEC after winning 13 states in the election.

Although, Messrs Abubakar and Obi have rejected the outcome of the election exercise which they described as the worst in history since the country returned to democracy.

Both men have also promised to challenge the presidential election result exercise in court as they queried the credibility of INEC, especially on its refusal to upload the results on its portal as earlier assured.