Nigeria's ruling party is telling the public to ignore unofficial primary results spreading across social media. The Nigeria Democratic Congress made this clear on Sunday through party officials.
Primary elections took place on May 28 and 29 across the country. Only the party's National Executive Council can announce what actually happened, NDC insists.
Osa Director, the party's National Publicity Secretary, issued the statement himself. He warned citizens not to trust any results posted online by individuals.
"The general public is hereby urged to disregard the various results circulating on social media," the statement read. According to party leadership, only authentic announcements come from NEC.
National Leader Senator Seriake Dickson ordered an urgent NEC meeting this week. Council members must arrive in Abuja by Tuesday, June 2.
The substantive meeting happens Wednesday, June 3 at the capital. Party officials will finalize the candidate list before that date.
Once NEC approves everything, the NDC will submit names to INEC. That's when voters and observers will get official candidate information, the party noted.
"The general public and stakeholders will be availed of the results when we send the list of candidates to fly our party's flag to INEC," the statement explained. Officials want people to wait for this formal process.
Online, some people aren't convinced by the delay. Social media user Dylan claimed Hon.
Utomi Nwanne leads the Delta North Senatorial primary race.
He demanded that party leadership respect "the electorate's mandate." But NDC hasn't acknowledged these claims publicly.
Many Nigerians have questioned why announcement took so long already. The party hasn't directly addressed these frustrations either.
Party spokespersons stressed that citizens should ignore everything except official NEC releases. Anything else, they say, isn't legitimate or trustworthy.
