Charles Oputa, popularly known as Charly Boy, has criticised INEC chairman Mahmood Yakubu for declaring Bola Tinubu the winner of the February 25 presidential election, despite opposition by the Peoples Democratic Party and Labour Party. 

Both parties and their candidates (Atiku Abubakar of PDP and Peter Obi of the Labour Party) are contesting the election in court. Mr Tinubu represented the APC in the poll.

In a tweet via his official Twitter account on Monday, Mr Oputa accused the INEC chair of being bent on “scattering” Nigeria by announcing Mr Tinubu as the winner of the fiercely contested presidential poll.

“See dis one. Dis shameless conconbility. I need help to curse dis man, who wan help me? Man wey wan scatter our Naija, e no go ever better for you,” Mr Oputa wrote.

Charly Boy’s tweet came days after Peoples Gazette published a leaked audio revealing his plot with former President Olusegun Obasanjo on mobilising young Nigerians to protest the emergence of Mr Tinubu as president-elect. 

INEC did not immediately respond to requests for comments regarding Mr Oputa’s tweet.

In the audio, Mr Obasanjo separately told Charly Boy and former Governor Donald Duke to lead the protest that would “paralyse” the country, adding that if President Muhammadu Buhari’s regime decided to unleash security operatives to kill the youth “let them kill.”

The mooted protest did not hold.

The PDP and Labour Party, which finished second and third in the election, rejected the results, claiming that the vote totals for the various political parties were manipulated. Despite the numerous objections made by the opposition and other Nigerians, including Mr Obasanjo, Mr Mahmood announced the APC flag bearer as the election winner.

The PDP, Labour Party and many prominent Nigerians censured INEC for failing to transmit the election results in real-time, as promised in the run-up to the poll.

Tinubu received 37 per cent (8,794,726) of the total votes cast, defeating PDP’s Atiku Abubakar, who had 29 per cent (6,984,520) and Peter Obi, who had 25 per cent (6,101,533), according to the results announced by INEC.

The major opposition parties have started the process of appealing the election results. Mr Abubakar led PDP leaders to protest results at INEC on Monday. 

The PDP warned the election umpire not to repeat its errors at the governorship elections this Saturday.