The opposition political parties on Tuesday called for the resignation of the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) following the controversy that has trailed the ongoing declaration of results of last Saturday’s presidential election
The opposition parties which had earlier staged a walk out from the exercise on Monday, in protest of the refusal INEC chairman to approve the uploading of election results from the polling unit o the INEC result portal before declaration, have continued to boycott further coverage of the exercise
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party (LP) and African Democratic Congress (ADC) and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), accused Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu for breaching the electoral act and allowing pre-determined results to be admitted into the process.
Addressing a joint press conference at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel Abuja on Tuesday the political parties in a communique read by National Chairman of Labour party, Barr. Julius Abure, said that INEC breeched its own rules and failed to transmit election results from the polling units.
He said, “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 should 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”.
The parties said that they have lost confidence in the electoral process stating that is has been highly compromised and far from being free, fair and transparent.
“We also wish to declare a vote of no confidence on the INEC Chairman, Professor Yakubu Mahmood. By his conduct and reaction to the complaints of disenfranchised political parties, we believe that he lacks the integrity and moral standing to continue to oversee this process to a conclusion.
“We are therefore 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”.
They said that INEC was under statutory obligation to transmit elections electronically from the polling unit and since it could not the achieved, the process should start all over to comply with the provisions of the electoral act.
The parties maintained that the results announced by INEC so far showed monumental disparities between the actual results reported by Labour Party agents of party members and indeed millions of Nigerians, on election day from the polling units.
While the National Chairman of PDP Sen. Iyorchia Ayu described the election as a sham, ADC National Chairman, Ralph Okey Nwosu said that it will be wrong to allow a process, flawed with irregularities and pre-determined results, be allowed to stand.
Also in a separate press briefing, the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), also called for the immediate cancellation of the general election.
NNPP national chairman, Professor Rufa’i Alkali, said the elections were characterised by voter suppression, intimidation, and vote buying.
Alkali also asked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to announce a new date for fresh elections.
“We are deeply concerned that going by what had happened on election day, the election umpire has taken our country back to pre-2015 era of elections where everything goes, where voters were deliberately and systematically disenfranchised, where ballot box snatching and ballot box stuffing was the norm, where voter suppression was widespread, where violence and vote-buying were the main deciding factors of the outcome of elections, where security agents openly take side with the ruling party and participate actively in rigging elections, and where people who have not participated in an election are declared winners of the election,” he said.
“For instance, in Kano, Ibrahim Shekarau who formally resigned from the NNPP, withdrew from the race, registered with the PDP, and conveyed same to the party and to the INEC, is now declared by INEC as the winner of an election under the NNPP. This is the era that Nigeria’s election umpire, INEC, has unfortunately, returned our country to.
“At the NNPP, we wish to draw attention to seven fundamental observations that we believed were deliberately planned between INEC and the ruling party to compromise the election in favour of the ruling party.
“From the beginning of the 2023 electioneering process, INEC as a commission has been displaying incomprehensible hostility towards the NNPP. From the conduct of our congresses and conventions to the conduct of our primary elections, we suffered unnecessary and unexplainable resistance and outright sabotage from INEC both at the state and national levels.
“The most disturbing one was when INEC shut our party from submitting our candidates onto their server days before the deadline. We had to go to court and secure judgment to compel INEC to accept our candidates. As if that was not enough, even after the court judgment, INEC went ahead to appeal some of the judgments. And to the best of our knowledge, we are the only political party that INEC has been appealing pre-election cases that we have won in courts.
“The most shameful of all is the refusal of INEC to use the correct and legible logo of our party on the ballot papers. The deliberate use of the illegible logo of our party on the ballot papers of the 2023 general election by INEC is very unfortunate.
“We were shocked on the election day to discover that INEC has decided to make use of the most blurred image to represent the logo of NNPP. It is even more shocking that the blurred image that INEC has put on the ballot did not include the name of our party.”
Alkali added that in the interest of fairness, INEC should suspend the collation of results and schedule another date for the polls..
“To save our democracy and our country, the present election results must not be accepted by Nigerians and by all friends of Nigeria.
“We are, therefore, calling for the immediate suspension of the announcement of results and the cancellation of the 2023 presidential election across the country. A new election should be conducted as soon as possible.”
Meanwhile, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has kicked against the call by the Peoples Democratic Party, the Labour Party and the African Democratic Congress for the resignation of Mahmood Yakubu.
The APC presidential campaign council in a counter press conference on Tuesday, shortly after the opposition parties’ news briefing, said the presidential and National Assembly elections held on Saturday were credible enough.
APC PCC spokesperson, Festus Keyamo, described the call as legally wrong and against the country’s constitution, adding that such call is a move to the alter the electoral process when the results had not even not even been declared.
“They actually called for President Muhammadu Buhari to intervene; to interfere with the process. First of all, those demands are not possible under the law,” Keyamo said.
The Minister of State for Labour and Employment added further that the request by the opposition parties were against the provision of the Electoral Act, saying the results collated by the state returning officers could not be tampered with by the INEC chairman.
“When they (the results) come to the national collation centre, the national chairman has no power under the law to review what all those returning officers have done,” he said, adding that all complains should have been resolved at the ward, local government area and state levels.
INEC meets IPAC, gives conditions for commission review of results
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has met with the Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC) over the controversy trailing the ongoing declaration of the just conducted presidential election.
Recall that the Peoples Democratic Party PDP and Labour Party LP had led other opposition political parties to stage a walk out on the declaration exercise on Monday, as has since boycotted tfurther appearance at the ongoing declaration a the International Conference Centre (ICC)
The aggrieved opposition political parties who demanded the uploading of election results to the INEC viewing portal before declaration, as earlier promised by INEC, accused the commission’s chairman of colluding with the ruling APC to override the provisions of the Electoral Act and INEC guideline for election
The parties had since moved a vote of no confidence on the INEC chairman and as well called for his resignation, alleging that he has compromised his job and failed on his several promises to Nigerians to conduct a free, fair and credible election
But Yakubu, in a meeting with the leadership of the Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC) before the resumption of the collation exercise on Tuesday, insisted that he will stick to the law, but assured that INEC will not fail to review the declared results where there is need.
“In accordance with the new Electoral Act particularly under Section 65 of the Electoral Act, we will review the election where it is absolutely necessary”, he declared.
Earlier, the Inter-Party Advisory Council IPAC had expressed support for the commission, urging it to not accede to the request to halt the process.
IPAC chairman, Yabagi Sani who spoke on behalf of the parties at the National Collation Centre , however acknowledged that there were challenges, but added that they were not enough to truncate the process.
He said; “We are here with most of the members of the council. We are here to express our delight that this process should continue, this is because when democracy fails, political parties are the first casualties and the politicians are the biggest losers.
“Democracy is crucial to the people of this country and we believe that the elections are the fundamental pillars of our democracy. So the mere fact that we held this election amid the current circumstances, we need to congratulate this country.
“We are not been mindful of the challenges in the country, but the commission and political parties experienced some of the unexpected development. From our findings, it is not uncommon to experience such in any technology usage.
“We believe that we are at a crossroads but Nigerians are highly resilient.
“It is not that we are happy or we don’t understand the pains of our people but in a democracy according to the popular maxim ‘the show must go on’ not that we just wanted to have this as a show but this country is a country of greatness.
“So we want to say because of this country and the importance of this process to our country of course without prejudice to the position some of our members must have taken but we must be on the side of history that this process is concluded and Nigeria becomes greater”, he stated
