Three opposition parties, The People’s Democratic Party, (PDP), Labour Party, (LP) and Africa Democratic Congress, (ADC), have called for the cancellation of Nigerian’s presidential election held on Saturday 25, February, 2023.
Addressing world Press conference at Transcorp Hilton Hotel Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, the national chairmen of the political parties, Julius Abure Lp, Senator Iyorchia Ayu, PDP and Ralf Okey Nwosu, ADC said they are calling for an outright cancellation of the Presidential election and passing a vote of no confidence on the INEC Chairman Professor Mahmood Yakubu because “The conduct of the February 25, 2023 election has been marred by widespread violence, rigging, intimidation of voters, doctoring of the results, and violation of the laid down electoral process which was communicated by the national electoral body, INEC”.
Reading the groups’ text, Julius Abure of Labour Party said all agreements between political parties and INEC were not followed by the election umpire thereby leaving room for manipulation of the results after Nigerians had voted and that it was “a travesty to democracy that was exhibited at the National Collation Centre of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC”.
Abure said the “results announced by INEC so far shows monumental disparities between the actual results reported by Labour agents, and members, and indeed millions of Nigerians, on election day from the polling units. We have also listened to the arguments made by collation officers of the different political parties”.
Abure said the crux of the matter is the deliberate refusal of the INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu as the National Returning Officer for the presidential election to respond to the demand of political parties for the commission to respect the pre-existing regulations that results of the election shall be uploaded on the INEC server through the Bio-modal Voter Accreditation System, (BVAS), technology. “The refusal of INEC to comply with the laid down, published, and agreed process for the conduct of the election has compromised the integrity and credibility of the entire presidential election”.
“We have, therefore, arrived at the conclusion that the presidential election of Saturday, February 25, 2023 conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has been irretrievable compromised and, we have totally lost faith in the entire process. The Peoples Democratic Party and the Labour Party shall not be part of the process currently going on at the National Collation Centre, and we demand that this sham of an election should be immediately cancelled”.
“We also call for a fresh election to be carried out within the window allowed by the Electoral Act and in accordance with the laid down INEC procedure for the conduct of the 2023 Elections. We similarly call on the international community to note that the results being declared at the National Collation centre have been heavily doctored and manipulated and do not reflect the wishes of Nigerians expressed at the polls on February 25, 2023”.
“We also wish to declare that Professor Yakubu Mahmood. By his conduct and reaction to the complaints of disenfranchised political parties, he lacks the integrity and moral standing to continue to oversee this process to a conclusion”. Abure said
He further added that they are “Calling for Professor Yakubu to step aside from his role as INEC Chairman and for a credible personality from outside the Commission to take his place and see this process to a conclusion that would be acceptable to all stakeholders and would restore the confidence of the international community in our democratic process and institutions”.
Julius Abure said INEC’s pronouncement that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, (BVAS), for accreditation and voting and that all election results would be electronically transmitted from polling units to INEC Servers were not followed and that INEC officials assigned to polling units could not do so.
In some cases, they revealed that they had directives from their superiors to not upload the results. In some cases, they said that the password for them to access the INEC server had been changed, while INEC also said the delay in some polling units was on account of glitches on the INEC server. “We are, therefore, constrained on this development to state that INEC compromised the integrity of this election even before collation began at the PUs”.
Quoting 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.” Noting that the introduction of the BVAS technology to the country encourage more Nigerians to register and participate in the electoral process believing that their votes will count
“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”.
They are calling on President Muhammadu Buhari to stand by his promise to Nigerians to bequeath a legacy of free, fair, and transparent elections to 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”.
Responding to some questions the party chairman said it is better to stop the process now and resort to the court later because their experiences in recent past with the judiciary has been unacceptable and painful, the cited results from Bauchi, Gombe and Katsina states were results turned in showed exact figures from those of 2019, the said that though cancellation will be expensive, the cost will be a lot more if last Saturdays election is allowed to stand and that they are reaching out to their supporters to be calm and allow the party leadership pursue their grievances to its logical conclusion.
Nigerians went to the polls on Saturday February 25 to elect a new president and members of the National Assembly which results were announced at the state level while the presidential election results are being announced at the national collation centre in Abuja, however 9 political parties staged a walk out after disagreeing with the results being announced by Chairman of INEC Professor Mahmood Yakubu, citing irregularities and discrepancies.
Olusola Akintonde
