In reaction to the recent public outrage from within the country and the international community over the conduct of the Presidential, Senatorial and House of Assembly elections, the Guild of Public Affairs Analysts of Nigeria (GPAAN) has called for a thorough and unbiased investigation into what really transpired before, during and soon after February, 25, 2023.
The group made the call in a statement signed by Ayo Oyoze Baje, president of the group.
“Concerned members of the Guild, some of who participated in election observation, are of the firm belief that since free, fair and credible elections symptomise the essence of democracy as a government of the people, as reflected through their choices, anything contrary to that should not be condoned under any guise.
“Notably, amongst the querulous issues that have been identified as constituting cogs in the wheels of the electoral process include late arrival of INEC officials, late commencement of the voting process in some units and inadequate arrangements made for transportation of the ad-hoc staff. Other incidents were the faulty Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) in some polling units and the refusal to deploy electronic transmission of results obtained at the polling units, real time to the Independent Result Viewing (IReV) portal of INEC. This is inexcusable!” the group said.
It further said that there were several reported incidents of violence by paid political thugs and voter suppression. “Not unexpectedly, there were also allegations of vote-trading and misleading, self-serving and unverified online news items.
“Not left out were the issues of the connivance of some unscrupulous security personnel, who turned a deaf ear to the cries of some voters, under harassment and threats by some state governors and their agents of oppression,” it said.
It also said that the areas where INEC performed creditably well, and deserves commendation include the rapid response to the complaints of technical hitches,as reported by some members of GPAAN on election observation; the fact that the first set of elections went ahead as scheduled, in spite of persisting fuel scarcity, insecurity and the naira redesign policy.
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“GPAAN has however, called for full investigations into the several allegations as listed and the unexpected complaint about INEC’s server that malfunctioned when it mattered most. In fact, that has left some unanswered questions about controversial election figures reeled out that are heading for litigation.All those found guilty should be brought to speedy justice, to serve as a timely warning to all.
“It is on this note that GPAAN is also calling on the judiciary to be truly independent, so that the people’s votes would count. That is the first fundamental step to a stable democratic journey,” the group said.
