The controversies surrounding the February 25 Presidential Election is yet to settle, Nigerians in Diaspora Organization (NIDO) on Thursday, said that the election was not free and fair adding that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) dashed the hope of Nigerians.
Chairman of NIDO, Dr. Kingsman Chikelu who spoke at a press conference on Thursday in Abuja
berated INEC for failing to upload election results from the polling units, reiterating that INEC betrayed the trust of Nigerians and made nonsense of the electoral act and its own rules.
Chikelu said that the group’s position is in line with the position of other election observers that observed several anomalies and breech of the electoral act by the organizing body.
According to Chikelu, “NIDO in line with the communique issued few days after the election, we are here to reinforce our stand categorically that the presidential election as witnessed a few days ago, as organized by INEC was not free and fair, to the standard that we expected following several briefings by INEC.
“The various briefings we received from INEC was all about how they are organized and how they made all arrangement. But on the day of the election, all of us here witnessed the drama that was contrary to what the briefing was before the day of the election, especially the issue of uploading the results of the presidential votes.
“Myself and others witnessed that the device was not doing the transmission of the result to the server from the polling unit. We were all worried and we came back to Abuja the next day as the collation was going on, to say that what we witness in the polling unit wasn’t actually what we were briefed before as far as the use of BVAS as the game changer but nobody was ready to look into that.
“The stand of NIDO worldwide, is that this election is not free and fair”
The group called on the electoral umpire to upload all the remining results into the server and also ensure that in the next election, results are directly uploaded directly from the polling units.
“Secondly, we are using this opportunity to call on INEC to upload the results that reflects the voting of Nigerians, the results that reflect the voting of Nigerians.
“So I don’t know why Nigerians will fund a budget with taxpayers money to improve on a system of technology, as we know we are in the jet age and that after paying, we see the same umpire, come in with paper, bic and biro, collating results and announcing it, to me it is an insult”.
He said that NIDO has confidence in the judiciary and is very hopeful that the court will do the needful by restoring the confidence of Nigerians on the electoral system and also ensure that the true winner of the polls is returned as elected.
“As civilized citizens of Nigeria living in the diaspora, we have trust in our judicial system. We have trust and we are using this opportunity to extend our demand again for the second time to the judiciary that they should not disappoint us and the entire Nigerians. They should interpret the law the way it is. We all know that court is the last hope of the common man. The judiciary should do the needful and redeem the image of whatsoever transpired”.
The group called on its members in different parts of the would to be calm, reassuring them that due process will be followed to restore the hope of Nigerians.
“We are calling on different chapters of Nigerians leadership in the diaspora, the student union in the diaspora, the traders union, professional unions, the Ottawa group in the diaspora. We know our structures and we are using this opportunity to call for calm, let’s not jump the gun, let’s give the judiciary this opportunity to do the needful”.
