The People’s Democratic Party, PDP has rejected the ruling by the Presidential Election Petition Court, PEPC, sitting at the Court of Appeal in Abuja, on Wednesday, which gave the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, the nod to reconfigure the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, it used for the presidential election.
The court, in a unanimous decision by a three-member panel of justices, held that stopping the electoral body from reconfiguring the BVAS would adversely affect the Saturday 11 March 2023 governorship and state assembly elections.
The ruling did not go down well with the opposition parties who lost the 25 February 2023 presidential election and feel the court’s ruling gives the electoral umpire the mandate to erase and destroy evidence they need to prosecute their case at the election petition tribunal.
The PDP, whose candidate Atiku Abubakar came second in the race is especially displeased on the grounds that the electoral umpire violated provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022 by manipulating and altering the election results thus subverting the will of Nigerians on February 25, 2023, Presidential and National Assembly Elections.
Addressing a press conference days after the court ruling, the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Debo Ologunagba said INEC’s collation of results was in violation of the provisions of Section 64 (4) (a) and (b), 64 (6) (a)-(d), and 65 (1) (c) of the Electoral Act. 2022.
“For emphasis, while Section 64 (4) (a) and (b) expressly require the INEC Chairman as the Chief Returning Officer to announce only results that were transmitted directly from the polling units, sections 64 (6) (a)-(d) and 65 (1) (c) compel INEC, in the case of disputes, complaints or objections regarding a collated result or the result of an election from any polling unit, to take steps including the review of collation where they are made contrary to the provisions of the law, regulations, guidelines, and manual issued for the election”. Ologunagba said.
Referencing the court ruling Ologunagba said it gives INEC the power to “reconfigure the BVAS devices, erase and destroy evidence of its manipulation of the Presidential election, deny Nigerians and political parties, especially our party and candidate access to relevant information required to prosecute our case at the Presidential Election Tribunal”.
He said “The INEC under Professor Mahmood Yakubu was compromised to rig the election by brazenly violating the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022 as well as INEC’s regulations, guidelines, and manual issued for the election. It is also obvious that the Commission under Professor Mahmood Yakubu was deliberately sabotaged”.
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Resignation demand of INEC Chairman
Based on these and other infractions, Ologunagba said the PDP is demanding that “the Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu immediately step down from office, having abused the confidence and dashed the hope of millions of Nigerians as well as political parties and the International Community for a free, fair and credible election. Nigerians no longer have faith in Prof Mahmood Yakubu’s capacity and integrity to manage a democratic institution as sensitive as INEC”.
He further said that “Prof. Mahmood Yakubu’s exit as Chairman of INEC will be the first step towards sanitizing the Electoral Commission and restoring the confidence of Nigerians especially as the nation prepares for the rescheduled March 18, 2023, Governorship and State Assembly elections”.
He called on the Inspector General of Police, the Director General of the Directorate of State Services, DSS, and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to “commence investigations into the electoral violations and manipulations by INEC with the view to prosecuting Professor Mahmood Yakubu and other officials of the Commission for electoral offences and allegations that certain top officials of INEC were heavily compromised financially to manipulate the electoral process”.
Debo Ologunagba noted that the PDP’s demand for Professor Mahmmod’s resignation is based on several pieces of evidence in the States across the six geopolitical zones of the country where winning figures lawfully scored by the PDP were switched in favour of the APC; where results sheet from polling centres won by the PDP were destroyed and replaced with fake results sheets in which APC was allocated unearned winning figures.
Ologunagba called on Nigerians to remain calm but very alert as the PDP continues to take steps to retrieve its mandate at the Presidential Election Tribunal.
The Federal High Court in Abuja under Justice Emeka Nwite had issued a new ruling on the collating and transmitting of election results.
The court held that it is only the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, that is empowered by law to determine the mode of collating and transmitting election results and has the prerogative to direct how the Polling Unit Presiding Officer should transfer election results, including the total number of accredited voters and results of the ballot.
Emmanuel Ukoh
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