#NigeriaDecides: Challenge Your Defeat Peacefully – UK Tells Opposition

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The United Kingdom has called on opposition candidates in the presidential election who wish to challenge their defeat, to do so with decorum.

Presidenti Muhammadu Buhari’s main opposition candidate Atiku Abubakar earlier Rejected the result of the 2019 presidential elections, which he called a sham, vowing to challenge it.

Harriett Baldwin, UK’s minister of state for Africa, said the result declared was consistent with the civil society parallel vote tabulation process. Baldwin said:

We urge any party or individual who wishes to challenge the process to do so peacefully and through the appropriate legal channel and we encourage Nigerian authorities to examine all allegations of wrongdoing carefully, and take the necessary action against individuals found responsible.

My thoughts are also with the families and friends of those who lost their lives in election-related violence. No one should die in the exercise of their democratic rights. We will continue to support Nigeria and its civil society in drawing lessons from these elections and strengthening its democracy.