The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has explained why there were collation glitches during the Presidential and National Assembly elections on February 25 across the country.
According to the electoral body, the delay experienced in the collation of results was due to the inability of some ad-hoc staff to work up to speed in transmitting the collated results to the INEC viewing centre.
Festus Okoye, the INEC’s national commissioner, disclosed this on Sunday, February 26, 2023.
Speaking on Channels Television’s The 2023 Verdict, he said: “We conducted this election in 176,848 units across all the states of the federation. It’s the responsibility of the Presiding Officers (POs) and the Registration Area (RA) technical support staff to assist and make sure these results are uploaded into our INEC result viewing centres.
“Some of them (ad-hoc staff) are not uploading the results with the speed we expected them to upload the results. So, our IT support staff have been contacting most of them to make sure they do the right thing and upload these results in real-time for Nigerians to have confidence and see these results as they are coming in.”
Nigeria Decides: INEC Speaks On Lagos Violence, Gives Reason For Canceling Polls In Edo
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has spoken on the violence that erupted in some areas in Lagos during the presidential and National Assembly elections on Saturday, February 25, 2023.
There were pockets of violence in some areas in Lagos on Saturday as thugs attacked polling units and destroyed election materials.
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Addressing the press at the International Conference Centre, ICC, in Abuja on Saturday, the Chairman of the Commission, Prof Mahmood Yakubu said that elections have been countermanded in some federal constituencies in Edo State.
He said the reason for countermanding the election in Esan North and Esan South was because of the missing logo of a political party on the ballot paper.
“We are aware of violence and destruction of elections materials at Mafoluku, Agege, Oshodi, and Elegushi. We have been able to normalise the situation in a number of places where election is currently ongoing,” he said.
“So we keep our eyes in the processes in the other areas that I have mentioned,” he said.
He continued “In Edo State, we handled a situation yesterday where one of the political parties whose acronym is on the ballot and the logo is not on the ballot paper in a federal constituency and after meeting with stakeholders, a decision was taken since the materials were intact to countermand the election. So we have suspended the election in Esan North, Esan South, and Igueben.”
Labour Party Raises Alarm Over Failure Of INEC Officials To Upload Presidential Results
Julius Abure, the national chairman of the Labour Party, has raised alarm on the impunity that is presently happening across the entire Lagos state where the results of the presidential elections collated in various polling units in the state are not being uploaded to the Central Server.
In a statement issued on Saturday, February 25, 2022 by Mr Abure, the officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC in connivance with the security agencies are claiming that the BVAS have suddenly developed fault and, therefore, cannot function.
The chairman said that information from the party’s field men has it that in places like Agege, Kosofe, Oshodi-Isolo, Surulere, and Ibeju Lekki, amongst others where results shows that Labour Party won convincingly, the INEC officials claim that the BVAS suddenly developed fault when it concerns uploading results of the presidential election.
According to him, “Information reaching me has it that in Lagos, they have refused to upload the results for the presidential election, they have uploaded that of the Senate and House of Representatives but for the presidential, they have refused. And they are using the police to drive our agents and supporters out of the place. And they said that they have firm instruction from INEC headquarters not to upload.
“For example, in Kosofe, they put the collation centre in a Local Government Area Headquarters. The place is sorrounded by APC and people are afraid of their life. They are not uploading, they said that they have been giving instruction to insist that the BVAS is faulty. And most of the places we won, but they have refused to upload.
“As I speak, APC officials are in Yaba office of INEC negotiating with the officials. What I have said now is happening in Agege, Kosofe, Oshodi-Isolo, Surulere, we have this situation all over. In Ibeju Lekki, our local government chairman who attempted to stop them was arrested by the police.”
Abure said that similar situation is playing out across the collation centres in Delta state.
He however called on INEC to ensure that only genuine and verifiable results generated from the various polling units should be uploaded.
He also called on the police to help this democracy to work and should resist the lure by the politicians to mar the gains of democracy by refusing to be used to deny Nigerians their choice of leaders.
Source: Daily Post
