The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) has threatened to reject any result released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) if the electoral commission, security agencies, and the federal government fail to arrest all the discrepancies that seem to subvert the will of the people.
In a press statement issued on Sunday, the NLC voiced its concern over electoral irregularities that it claimed were capable of truncating the progress the country has achieved in its democratic future.
Concerns such as voter intimidation by thugs from some political parties in Lagos and Rivers States have generated so much local and international attention that the workers’ union led by Joe Ajaero had to release this warning, insisting that the electoral commission and the security agencies do everything possible to protect the electoral process.
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“Unfortunately, the situation, rather than getting better, got worse as the day went on with heart-wrenching reports from across the nation of vile activities of individuals associated with some parties and utter collusion of INEC officials and security agencies to compromise the election and subvert the will of the people,” the statement said.
“Using of thugs in Rivers state and Lagos to mete out violence and intimidate voters in these states run counter to the tenet and practice of democracy.”
The union cited despicable acts caught on tape of Mc Oluomo, the chairman of the Lagos State Parks and Gardens Management, in which he was seen on video telling Igbos and other Labour Party (LP) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) supporters not to come to their polling booths to vote, which it condemned. Other acts were mentioned by the group.
The union also complained about the deliberate attempt by INEC to disenfranchise many Nigerians through its refusal to upload election results on the BVAS machine. “The inability of INEC to prevent the recurrence in this election of the ills of the past elections speaks volume of its ill-preparedness forth is election as can be demonstrated in the late arrival of critical election materials to the polling units and the almost deliberate tampering of the BVAS in many polling units, including the outright refusal of its operatives to upload results from the BVAS to the INEC servers in total violation of the rules of the election and INEC’s own election guidelines.”
They blamed the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for deliberating colluding with agents of a particular political party to try to compromise and make the BVAS not function. “If this allegation is true, that may explain why polling unit officers were reluctant to transmit the BVAS reports for the presidential elections to the official INEC servers,” the statement read.
However, the NLC demanded that INEC investigate the activities of one of its officials in the ICT department who may have been responsible for technically jamming the airwaves, making it difficult for BVAS results to be transmitted to the servers. “He was the former commissioner in Lagos State, and his name is Femi Odubuyi,” it alleged.
It advised, “We must therefore, in pursuit of these, ensure that INEC stops this collusion and subversion across the country to deliver fair, credible, and acceptable outcomes for this election.
“We warn INEC and others not to allow this election to degenerate into a national crisis. This is avoidable, and it can only by allowing the sovereign will to prevail that we can guarantee national peace.”
