Results INEC uploaded are an insult to anyone’s intelligence — Atedo Peterside

Atedo Peterside, the founder of Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc and Anap Business Jet Limited, said that the results uploaded by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) during the presidential election are an insult to anyone’s intelligence.

In an interview on Tuesday on Arise TV, Peterside said that he was completely disappointed with the electoral body’s performance, which produced Ahmed Bola Tinubu as the president-elect. He praised the steps taken by Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar of the Labour Party and Peoples Democratic Party, respectively, to challenge the result in court, saying that whatever is agreed upon in court, Nigerians would accept, especially after the judiciary would have done the right thing and be seen to be fair.

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“If they go through this process and the judges convince us that everything was done correctly and we adopt the numbers, whoever is the winner, we will congratulate the person,” he said. “But for now it is premature; when I can see with my own eyes what INEC has uploaded, it is an insult to everybody’s intelligence; it is premature; people who are rushing to congratulate him have not taken the trouble to even look at the available information or the evidence. INEC is each to its own.”

On what to expect for Saturday’s governorship and state house of assembly elections, the Anap founder said that the electoral commission can’t afford to make the same mistake that questioned its credibility, competence, and impartiality in the presidential election again. He said that the commission must ensure that once results are collated at the polling units, wards, and local government areas, they must be immediately uploaded, not giving room for any kind of manipulation.

He said, “It is a chance for the INEC chairman and others to redeem themselves; he should insist that everybody upload the results after voting. We cannot have one or two states hold back the result after voting and start thump printing endlessly and claiming that they could not transmit the result. INEC cannot fail twice. They cannot repeat that same mistake.”