Amid the controversy over the presidential election results, a coalition of three political parties has asked Mahmood Yakubu, chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to resign immediately.
The Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP), the Labour Party (LP) and the African Democratic Party (ADC), on Tuesday, also called for the cancellation of the entire results of last Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly elections.
Several observers, including the European Union Election Observation Mission, ECOWAS Election Observation Mission and Yiaga Africa, have raised concerns over the logistical challenges that plagued the elections and the delay in uploading polling unit results on the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV).
Yiaga Africa, a civil society organisation, said on Sunday that the failure of the IReV system, intended to enhance transparency, undermined public confidence in the process and could potentially impugn the integrity of the elections.
As of 4:30pm on Tuesday, less than 60 percent (103,842) of the 176,846 polling units had their results uploaded on the portal.
INEC had on Sunday expressed regret over the delay in uploading the election results, blaming the setback on technical hitches.
It said its technical team was working assiduously to solve all the outstanding problems, adding that users of the IReV would have noticed improvements since Saturday night.
The opposition parties passed a vote of no confidence in the INEC boss on Tuesday during a joint press conference in Abuja.
Iyorchia Ayu, Julius Abure and Ralph Nwosu, chairmen of the PDP, LP and ADC, respectively, described the the collation of results by the electoral umpire as “a travesty and rape of democracy”.
They said the results announced by INEC so far showed “monumental disparities” between the actual results reported by LP agents, their party members, and millions of Nigerians on election day from the polling units.
They therefore called on the government to cancel the entire election conducted so far “due to the widespread anomalies that trailed the election”.
The coalition asked President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately step in to save democracy by appointing a more credible person to complete the 2023 general election, saying such an approach would help strengthen his resolve to bequeath a credible election process for the country.
“President Muhammadu Buhari, this is a time of great test of your integrity to use your office to save Nigeria from this electoral heist and save your legacy from the forces that seek to mar your democratic credentials,” it said.
The group said the malpractices were on a wide scale, adding: “That is why we are bringing it to the knowledge of Nigerians and the international community.”
“We do not want our people to take the laws into their hands and want the entire election cancelled, because the damage that has been done is not what you can correct,” it said.
The parties said the process had been marred by irregularities right from the beginning.
They said election results were still being collated and taken to government houses to be manipulated, and “the process can no longer be corrected because of widespread violations”.
The coalition said: “Since they have failed, the process cannot be corrected because you can’t correct the damage that has been done to the election; it is irretrievable and should be re-conducted.
“This is why we are calling on President Muhammadu Buhari who appointed the INEC chairman and therefore should be able to bring sanity to the situation to act as quickly as possible, because we do not want our people to take to the street, taking the laws into their hands.”
Ayu accused the elecroral body of allocation of votes, pointing out that the same results were given to the PDP, APC and LP in both Bauchi and Gombe states.
“What we have seen so far, is vote allocation and not collation. If you look at the election results from Bauchi and Gombe, you will notice that they are exactly the same. It is clear, that these results were deliberately allocated. You can see how two results of different states are exactly the same,” he said.
However, BusinessDay findings show that Gombe and Bauchi results are not the same. In Gombe, APC got 146,977 votes; PDP, 319,123; and LP, 26,160. In Bauchi, PDP got 426,607 votes; APC, 316,694; and LP, 27,373.
Read also: Despite apologies, INEC yet to upload half of results
The PDP chairman accused INEC of compromising the integrity of the election, even before collation began at the polling units.
He said: “Section 60 sub-section 5 of the Electoral Act states that ‘the presiding officer shall transfer the results, including total number of accredited voters and the result of the ballot in a manner as prescribed by the commission.
“It was on the strength of this provision in our Electoral Act that the Independent National Electoral Commission introduced the BVAS technology to the country. The expectation of the majority of Nigerians was that INEC was going to conduct the 2023 election in compliance with both the Electoral Act and its own guidelines.”
Ayu added: “Unfortunately, INEC recapitulated on that promise and conducted the election with the usual crude standard that predates the introduction of the BVAS machine. This election is not free and far from being fair or transparent. There is ongoing extensive cancellation of results all over the country, especially in the areas of strength of the opposition parties to shore up the numbers of the ruling APC.
“We have, therefore, arrived at the conclusion that the presidential election of Saturday, February 25, 2023 conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission has been irretrievably compromised and, we have totally lost faith in the entire process.”
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