At 9 AM on Monday, March 13, 2023, former Presidential spokesperson, Reno Omokri, led a protest against the February 25, 2023, Presidential election at the Consulate General of Nigeria, in New York.
Video clips from the protest show that a large number of Nigerians and many American friends of Nigeria followed Mr. Omokri to the venue, located at 828, 2nd Avenue, New York. Meanwhile, as a result of the protest, traffic was affected and pedestrians were attracted to the venue.
While there, Mr. Omokri maintained that there were over-voting in approximately 14,000 polling units, and that based on section 47(3) of the Electoral Act 2022, elections ought to be cancelled in those PUs. And that over voting and manual accreditation and transmission of results in such high numbers of PUs (8%) were enough to invalidate the results of the election.
Omokri said the presence of Tinubu’s loyalists as the person in charge of the INEC’s ICT ” may explain why BVAS and electronic transmission of results suddenly and mysteriously failed on Election Day.”
Finally, he recalled that “on November 25, 2022, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Olukayode Ariwoola GCON, joined Governor Wike and his G5 at a party in Rivers state, where he praised Governor Makinde for being a member of that political group.”
As such, he said “Mr. Makinde is politicised and should recuse himself from the judicial process arising from the election.”
Despite appeals from Embassy staff, the peaceful and non violent protest held successfully.
