The group also faulted the Independent National Electoral Commission on the conduct of the election, saying the commission did not comply with electoral guidelines.

This was contained in a communique issued after the general meeting of the group. The communique was made available to our correspondent by the Secretary General of the association, Mr Sola Ebiseni, in Akure, the Ondo State capital on Wednesday.

According to the group, the alleged non-compliance with the electoral guidelines by the INEC caused a series of malpractices during the last general election.

The communique read in part,” The deliberate non-compliance by the Commission with these mandatory guidelines encouraged electoral brigandage at the polling units which included the destruction of ballot papers, snatching of ballot boxes, doctoring of figures and swapping of votes of candidates at the coalition centres by amended and outlawed manual procedures which rendered the 25th February 2023 Presidential and National Assembly elections flawed in several respects as confirmed by local and international observers.

“The results of the lawful votes at the election available  to the Afenifere through credible sources confirm that His Excellency Peter Gregory Obi, the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party won the said election and we thus support his decision  challenging the contrary Declaration by the INEC.”

The group, which declared that the Labour Part’s candidate, Mr Peter Obi won the presidential election,

“denounced in strong terms and dissociated Afenifere from any congratulatory message in the name of the Organisation or howsoever to any candidate as illegally declared by the INEC.”

“Afenifere reiterates that for equity, fairness, national cohesion and peaceful corporate existence, the next President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria shall be a person of its Southern part and specifically the South-East,” the statement added.

The group called on Nigerians to troop out en masse and participate fully in the governorship and houses of assembly elections coming up on Saturday, March 11, 2023.

Earlier, the leader of the group worldwide, Pa Reuben Fasoranti in a congratulatory letter to the President-Elect, Tinubu over his victory in the last presidential election.

In the letter, Fasoranti advised the President-Elect to avoid the mistakes of his predecessors.

The letter read in part, “You now have the opportunity. Now is the time for you to prove me right. I pray to God to be with you.

“In going about this, avoid the mistake of some of your forbears. Be fair to all concerned. Go ahead to unite the country, see and treat the country as one.