Lai Mohammed: We engaged foreign media to counter rigging claims in 2023 elections

Lai Mohammed, the former minister of information and culture, says the federal government engaged international media outlets to counter allegations of rigging in the 2023 presidential election.

He made this remark at the spokespersons summit held in Abuja on Tuesday.

Mohammed said he led a team to the United Kingdom and the United States to engage directly with media organisations including Washington Post, BBC, Associated Press, and Economist.

He said his team also had discussions with think tanks like the Hudson Institute, U.S. Institute of Peace, Atlantic Council, and Chatham House.

“Allegations of rigging had surfaced, largely centred around the delay in uploading results to the IReV portal—which, notably, plays no role in the official collation of election results,” he said.

“I led my team to the United Kingdom and the United States to engage directly with key international media organisations and influential think tanks. Our goal was to present them with irrefutable facts on how the election was won and lost.

“We met with journalists and representatives from Voice of America, The Washington Post, Foreign Policy Magazine, Associated Press, BBC, The Economist, Reuters, Bloomberg, Politico, Hudson Institute, U.S. Institute of Peace, Atlantic Council, and Chatham House, among others.”

Mohammed said his team had to explain the relevant sections of the Nigerian constitution, as many organisations were not well-versed in the criteria needed to win a presidential election.

“We explained that under Chapter 6, Section 134 of the Constitution, a candidate must not only win the majority of votes but also secure at least 25 percent of the votes in no fewer than two-thirds of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory,” he added.

“Based on this, we made it clear that neither the PDP nor LP candidates had a viable path to victory. We presented the breakdown : the LP candidate placed a distant third, trailing the APC candidate by approximately 2.7 million votes.

“The APC candidate not only won the highest number of votes but also secured 25 per cent of the vote in 29 states—well above the constitutional threshold. The PDP candidate, who came second, met the 25 per cent threshold in only 21 states, while the LP candidate achieved it in just 15 states. Both fell short of the constitutional criteria for victory.

“To further dispel the allegations of rigging, we laid out compelling evidence: the APC lost in key states with a high number of registered voters—Lagos, Kaduna, Kano, and Katsina—even though all had APC governors.”