The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said it will not canvass in the media matters that are sub-judice.
The commission said this in reaction to the recent exchange of words between the two major parties on the case before the presidential election petition tribunal.
In a statement on Monday by its national commissioner, Festus Okoye, the commission said it will not do so because it is a law-abiding body.
“The commission is a Iaw-abiding institution and will not argue or canvass in the media, petitions that are sub-judice and where the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal is firmly seized of the issues.
“The commission is a law-abiding institution and will continue to accord the requisite respect to judicial institutions and obey the orders of court.”
President Muhammadu Buhari, who ran as the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), won the presidential election after polling 15,191,847 to beat Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who polled 11,262,978 votes.
Mr Abubakar, however, is challenging the victory of the president at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal with a 139-page document.
He claims he polled 18,356,732 votes while Buhari recorded 16,741,430 from the data in INEC’s server.
But INEC denied this saying PDP’s claim is false.
The APC has urged the tribunal to dismiss PDP’s petition for incompetence. It argued that Section 131(a) of the Constitution stipulates that a person must be a citizen of Nigeria by birth to be qualified to contest for the office of the President.
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