The delay in uploading the results of the Presidential election on the portal of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has raised anxiety among Nigerians, with the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP) alleging attempts to manipulate the election results in favour of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Meanwhile, INEC has expressed regret for the challenges with the INEC Results Viewing Portal (IReV), saying the Commission takes full responsibility for the problems and regrets the distress that they have caused the candidates, political parties, and the electorate.
The commission said the problem was totally due to technical hitches related to scaling up the IReV from a platform for managing off-season state elections, to one for managing nationwide general elections.
The national commissioner and chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, said it is not unusual for glitches to occur and be corrected in such situations.
Consequently, he said the commission reassures Nigerians that the challenges are not due to any intrusion or sabotage of its systems and that the IReV remains well-secured.
The statement reads in part: “The commission is aware of challenges with the INEC Results Viewing Portal (IReV). Unlike in off-season elections where the portal was used, it has been relatively slow and unsteady. The Commission regrets this setback, especially because of the importance of IReV in our results management process.”
He said the commission technical team is working assiduously to solve all the outstanding problems, and users of the IReV would have noticed improvements since last night.
“We also wish to assure Nigerians that results from the Polling Units, copies of which were issued to political parties, are safe on both the BVAS and the IReV portal,” he said.
He said the results cannot be tampered with and any discrepancy between them and the physical results used in collation will be thoroughly investigated and remediated, in line with Section 65 of the Electoral Act 2022.
“While we fully appreciate the concerns of the public on this situation and welcome various suggestions that we have received from concerned Nigerians, it is important to avoid statements and actions that can heat up the polity at this time or promote disaffection towards the Commission,” heh advised.
Atiku, PDP Ask Electoral Body To Speed Up Process
The PDP has, however, called on INEC to ensure a transparent and credible collation process in such a manner that guarantees that all votes count and that the will of the people is respected.
The opposition party stated this while saying that from preliminary reports on the results coming from the February 25, 2023 Presidential election, it is confident that its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, is already coasting to victory.
The PDP, in a statement by its national publicity secretary, Debo Ologunagba, noted that Atiku is securing the highest number of valid votes cast as well as the statutory 25% in at least two thirds of the states of the Federation to ultimately breast the tape on the first ballot.
He said, “Our party therefore calls on INEC to ensure a very transparent and credible collation process in such a manner that guarantees that all votes count and that the Will of the people is respected.
“INEC should not only ensure prompt uploading of results but also continue to make the result viewing portal available to the public in the interest of transparency.”
In a related development, Atiku Abubakar has asked the chairman of the INEC, Prof Mahmood Yakubu to instruct the collation officers for yesterday’s election to upload the results to the INEC server immediately.
Atiku, in a statement signed by his media aide, Paul Ibe, said the call has become necessary to check some governors who are trying to compromise the results at the local government collation level.
“It will be a disservice to Nigerians and a negation to democracy for anyone to subvert the will of the people as freely expressed in their votes of yesterday,” Atiku said.
He called on Nigerians to be calm but vigilant to ensure that anti-democratic elements who are masquerading as progressives do not steal their mandate.
Meanwhile, the PDP presidential candidate has expressed gratitude to the Nigerian people for their support so far and pledged to continue to work hard to earn their trust and confidence.
“We are humbled and honoured by the early projections, which indicate that the Nigerian people have seen in Atiku Abubakar the kind of leader that they want to lead them into a brighter future,” it said.
The statement added that while it is still too early to predict the final outcome of the elections, Atiku Abubakar’s early success has certainly put him in a strong position as the race enters its final stages.
Nobody Can Arm-twist INEC, Says Tinubu
On his part, APC presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has told the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party (LP) and other opposition political parties that participated in Saturday’s presidential election to stop overheating the polity with complaints of violence and irregularities.
He said no political party can bully INEC by threats to do its own bidding, adding that the APC cannot be cowed to keep quiet by the antics of the opposition.
A statement by chief spokesperson of the APC presidential campaign council, Festus Keyamo (SAN), reads in part: “Our attention has been drawn to some incendiary comments by spokespersons of the opposition parties, notably the PDP and the Labour Party (LP) regarding the yet-to-be-announced results of the elections that held yesterday.
“Some of them have threatened fire and brimstone if their own version of some concocted results are not announced in a bid to be the judge, jury and executioner in these elections.”
He accused PDP, LP and others of playing up some isolated incidents of violence in APC strongholds just to create tension.
He said however that the governing party has “tonnes of videos of massive electoral malpractices like violence against non-LP supporters, forcing and guiding women and children to thumb-print ballot papers for LP and massive thumb-printing of ballot papers by both PDP and LP supporters in some parts of the country.”
Tinubu described the PDP complaint about a newspaper headline suggesting victory for Tinubu based on early results as an attempt “to rile up their supporters against the country.”
He said curiously, while condemning the newspaper, the PDP also made unfounded claims about the yet-to-be released results.
Keyamo, who is director of Public Affairs of the APC campaign team and minister of State, Labour and Employment, said, “The body officially designated to reflect the voices of Nigerians is INEC. No party can bully them by threats to do its own bidding. Neither will the APC be cowed into silence by this disgusting antic of the opposition parties.”
He called on the International Observers and friends of Nigeria not to be distracted, but to focus on the process as it unfolds.
PDP, LP Allege Possible Manipulation Of Results
The main opposition PDP and the Labour Party (LP) yesterday raised the alarm over the possible manipulation of election results.
The parties, in separate statements, stated this against the backdrop of the failure of INEC to timely upload results of the presidential election as it had assured.
While PDP alleged a plot by the APC to alter election results in Katsina, Kaduna, Kano, Zamfara, the Labour Party raised concerns over elections in Lagos, Delta, Edo, Imo and Rivers states.
The national chairman of Labour Party, Julius Abure, in a press conference in Abuja, said INEC, by its conduct, has caused millions of Nigerians, particularly the teeming youth, who took part in this election with high hopes of a free and fair transparent process, to hold strong feelings of disappointment and disillusionment.
He said, “The Electoral Act was amended in 2022 for the electronic transmission of results after they are declared at the polling units.
“Nigerians participated in this process with the belief that the use of technology and adherence to the agreed electronic transmission of results to INEC servers at polling units would ensure a free, fair, and transparent elections.
“Traditionally, Nigerians know that previous elections witnessed manipulations of results by desperate politicians at collation centres and polling units.
“But, yesterday, being Saturday, February 25, 2023, the very process which INEC assured Nigerians would be followed was truncated for whatever reasons. No matter what those reasons are, they are totally unacceptable to Nigerians and members of the party.
“INEC servers shut down and ONLY PRESIDENTIAL elections could not be uploaded on to the INEC server. The Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) did not work as planned.
“This failure, no doubt, has given room for manipulation of the presidential results being announced by the INEC chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, at the Collation Centre in Abuja.”
According to him, the party had sufficient documentary evidence that confirms manipulation of the presidential election results in Lagos, Rivers, Imo, parts of Edo State, Delta State, and some Northern states.
“These manipulations were carried out under the watchful eyes and connivance of police officers at the various election units and INEC offices.
“The decision of INEC to go ahead to announce these doctored results based on manufactured voting has defeated the efforts made by Nigerians to see that the Electoral Act was amended to allow for electronic transmission of results,” he said.
He also noted the impunity which occurred in the entire Lagos State during the conduct of yesterday’s election, adding that there were widespread incidences of violence, ethnic profiling, and threats meted out on Nigerians, particularly those who supported the Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi.
“Information from our party agents has it that in places like Agege, Kosofe, Oshodi-Isolo, Surulere, and Ibeju Lekki, amongst others, where results show that Labour Party won convincingly. The INEC officials claim that the BVAS suddenly developed fault when it concerns uploading results of the presidential election.
“The same INEC officials uploaded the results of the National Assembly elections to the server without hitches. INEC officials used the police to drive our agents and supporters out of the collation centre. And they said that they have firm instruction from INEC headquarters not to upload.”
Abure further lamented that INEC chairman, Professor Yakubu, in his address to Nigerians yesterday, failed to acknowledge the glaring failure of the INEC server, BVAS, and the flouting of its own laid-down procedure for transmission of results.
Abore, therefore, called President Muhammadu Buhari to match his word with action after promising Nigerians that he would leave a legacy of free, fair, and credible elections.
“We also call on the INEC chairman Professor Mahmood Yakubu and the commission itself to ensure that the wishes of the people are upheld.
“Let us re-emphasise, the purpose of clearing all doubt, that the Labour Party and our presidential candidate, His Excellency Peter Obi will only accept results which reflect the actual voting results obtained at polling units across the country,” he said.
On its part, PDP said it is alarmed by reports in the public space that Governors Aminu Bello Masari, Nasir el-Rufai, Abdullahi Ganduje and Bello Matawalle of Katsina, Kaduna, Kano and Zamfara states respectively were allegedly mounting pressure on officials of INEC to alter the results of the presidential elections in favour of the APC.
A statement by the national publicity secretary of PDP, Hon Debo Ologunagba, said, “These desperate APC governors are allegedly pressuring and blackmailing INEC officials to manipulate the results and transfer massive votes validly cast for the PDP and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, to the rejected APC and its presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“Our party has been informed that this nefarious scheme by the APC governors is responsible for the stalling of collation of election results in Katsina, Kano, Kaduna, Zamfara and other APC states where the presidential candidate of the APC is alleged to have released over N11 billion per state to rig the election in his favour.
“This, our Party has been made aware, is responsible for the unexplained delay in the transmission of election results from the said states to INEC Server in Abuja and the commencement of formal announcement of results by the INEC chairman,” it said.
The PDP asked the chairman of INEC to caution the Commission’s officers in Kaduna, Kano, Katsina and Zamfara states not to tamper with the results of the election and to direct the immediate transmission of the results to INEC Server.
While the party called on APC governors to respect the will of the people as expressed at the ballot as anything to the contrary will be firmly resisted by Nigerians, it urged calm but alertness, saying they should use every means necessary within the ambit of the law to ensure that their will is not subverted by the APC.
First published in Leadership