Election results: Go to court if you’re aggrieved, INEC replies PDP, LP, ADC, insists Yakubu won’t resign

 

 

Obiora Ifoh,

 

Chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission, Mahmood Yakubu has asked the aggrieved political parties to approach the court if they are not satisfied with the process of the election.

 

The Chief Press Secretary to INEC Chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi in statement on Tuesday said, “The call by the Labour Party and the People’s Democratic Democratic Party on the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu to resign is misplaced. The allegation by Dino Melaye that the INEC Chairman allocated scores to parties is unfounded and irresponsible.

 

“At the same time, contrary to the insinuation by both parties, results emanating from the States point to a free, fair and credible process.

 

“There are laid down procedures for aggrieved parties or candidates to follow when they are dissatisfied about the outcome of an election. Such procedures do not include calling on the INEC Chairman to resign or for the election to be cancelled.

 

“To be sure, aggrieved parties are free to approach the courts to ventilate their concerns and wait for the matter to be resolved. Making inciting comments capable of causing violence or unrest is unacceptable.

 

“The 2023 General election processes are in their final stages of completion. It is only fair for aggrieved parties to allow the conclusion of the process and approach the courts with their evidences to pursue their cases.”

earlier The Peoples Democratic Party, the Labour Party and the African Democratic Congress have called for the cancellation of the Presidential election and that the Chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission, Mahmood Yakubu, steps aside from his role as INEC Chairman.

They also asked him to hand over to a “credible personality” to take oversee the process that would be acceptable to all stakeholders and restore the confidence of the international community, the democratic process and institutions.

The three political parties also made a demand  for the conduct of a fresh election in a joint press conference on Tuesday in Abuja.

Present at the event were the PDP National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, his ADC counterpart, Ralph Nwosu and that of the LP, Julius Abure.

The National Chairmen of the parties alleged that the February 25, 2023 presidential and National Assembly elections were marred by widespread rigging, voters harassment violence  and voters intimidation.

The position of the three political party was expressed in an address delivered by the National Chairman of the Labour Party, Julius Abure.

This was disclosed in a joint press conference on Tuesday, in Abuja by the three parties delivered by LP National Chairman, Julius Abure.

“We are therefore constrained by this development to state that INEC compromised the integrity of this election even before collation commenced at the polling units.

“Section 60 sub-section 5 of the Electoral Act states that “the presiding officer shall transfer the results, including total number of accredited voters and the result of the ballot in a manner as prescribed by the commission.”

 

“It was on the strength of this provision in our Electoral Act that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) introduced the BVAS technology to the country.

 

“The expectation of the majority of Nigerians was that INEC was going to conduct the 2023 election in compliance with both the Electoral Act and its own guidelines.

 

“Unfortunately, INEC recapitulated on that promise and conducted the election with the usual crude standard that predates the introduction of the BVAS machine.

 

“This election is not free and far from being fair or transparent.

 

“There is ongoing extensive cancellation of results all over the country, especially in the areas of strength of the opposition parties to shore up the numbers of the ruling APC.

 

“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.

 

“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.

 

“We have a responsibility to the millions of Nigerians who put their faith in our parties and our presidential candidates to defend our country from the forces that seek to tear us apart.

 

“We are calling on President Muhammadu Buhari to stand by his promise to Nigerians to bequeath a legacy of free, fair, and transparent elections to the country.

 

“President Muhammadu Buhari, this is a time of great test of your integrity to use your office to save Nigeria from this electoral heist and save your legacy from the forces that seek to mar your democratic credentials.

 

“We are calling on Nigerians to continue to believe in the promise of Nigeria. To join us in defending the integrity of our country and defend our democracy.”

 

 

Tinubu Files Suit To Stop LP, PDP From Halting Results’ Collation

 

The All Progressives Congress (APC) and its presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, have instituted a suit to restrain the Labour Party (LP) and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) from doing anything to stop the collation and announcement of the results of the February 25 presidential election.

In the suit  filed before the Federal High Court in Kano and marked FHC/KN/CS/43/2023, the Action Alliance and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) were joined as defendants while the Vice Presidential of the APC, Kashim Shettima, was also listed as plaintiff.

The plaintiffs in a motion on notice filed alongside the originating summons, asked the court to make the order restraining the defendants from stopping the collation and announcement of the results because “damages will not adequately compensate for the injury that may be occasioned on the Plaintiffs if by the Defendants stop the collation of the result.”

.Declare presidential election inconclusive, set date for new polls – Atiku

Also, The presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubarkar has asked the Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu to declare the Saturday’s presidential election inconclusive.

 

The presidential candidate also asked the electoral umpire to suspend national collation immediately and address the complaints raised by parties relating to BVAS bypass and electronic transmission of results.

 

The Spokesman to Atiku/Okowa Campaign Organisation, Dr Daniel Bwala in a statement, Tuesday said that INEC should desist from any interpretation that will mislead the political parties, because pushing the review after final declaration is tantamount to exercise in futility and planned attempt to sidestep section 65 and the very reason for its provision in the electoral act in the first place.

 

“This section was largely objected to by APC lawmakers and lawyers during the amendment process before it was eventually passed into law. So let’s be clear, the election is inconclusive and the INEC Chairman cannot proceed without the political parties being present to object or accept the results at the national collation exercise.

 

“No court of law hears and determines a matter in the absence of necessary parties. Therefore  the options available to the INEC chairman in law, fairness, transparency, equity and good conscience.”

 

Atiku also said, “Set a date for conduct of elections in the affected places and ensure results are uploaded as contains in the guidelines. The said elections must be free and fair and BVAS used accordingly.

 

“Cancel all the collated and announced results so far until such a time when all the results collated at the polling units alone be uploaded to INEC server, same ONLY BE ANNOUNCED, duplicate copies of which all party agents have for transparency sake.

 

“Declare this election inconclusive and set a date for conduct of elections that addresses areas where BVAS was not used and where violence occurred which suppressed the voting rights of the people.

 

“Address the Nigerian public in a televised speech on the sanctity of the processes and integrity of his person to regain the confidence of the Nigerian people and the international community.

 

“Confidence of the process and legitimacy of the results must never be sacrificed on the alter of convenience and speed. This election is pivotal to the national security of the country.”

The Vice Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Sen. Ifeanyi Okowa and his counterpart in the Labour Party, Dr. Yusuf Ahmed Baba-Ahmed have dismissed last week’s Presidential election as a sham.

The duo said this at a joint press conference, in Abuja, on Tuesday.

Reading from a prepared text, Governor Okowa said what the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, was doing by announcing results yet to be uploaded on the INEC portal was illegal and cannot stand.

The promise by the INEC Chairman to review the results after the declaration is a joke.

Okowa noted that last year, everybody, including the INEC Chairman, was very excited about the electoral Act which was passed, we all thanked Mr. President for signing it into law.

The PDP Vice Presidential candidate said, “What the Chairman should do is to go ahead and cancel the election, he has taken an oath, he should tell Nigerians the truth.

 

“The truth is that they have not uploaded the results what happened? Is their system down? What happened in INEC ? Is there a compromise?

 

“The only way to go is to cancel. Nigerians are not fools, the INEC chairman asked for this law, what has been done is illegal. If their portal is down, let him tell Nigerians the right thing to do is for him to cancel this election.”

 

Okowa explained that on Saturday, the 25th of February, 2023, Nigerians from the different parts of the country braced all manner of challenges to cast their votes for their preferred candidates.

 

And that having cast their votes, they are expectantly awaiting the results of the presidential and National Assembly election.

 

He said, “We wish to state for the records that last weekend’s election was a sham. It was neither free nor fair.

 

“What played out yesterday at the National Collation Center exposes the National Chairman of playing to a predetermined script.

 

“Our position remains that the election and transmission of the results must be in tandem with the Electoral Act and the INEC guidelines.

 

“There is no doubt that INEC is under a statutory obligation to transmit election results electronically.

 

“Paragraph 38 of the INEC manual made pursuant to section 149 of the Electoral Act 2022 and the 1999 constitution as amended provides for this.

 

“That paragraph, which deals with the transmission of results at the polling units, is crucial, and it imposes statutory obligations on the part of INEC to upload polling units results on its portal.

 

“There is no doubt that polling units results are the pyramid upon which other results are built. Therefore, it is required that the moment polls come to a close and the results are declared, the results must be uploaded on INEC server or portal.

 

“Paragraph 38 of INEC Manual 2022 made pursuant to the provisions of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended and section 149 of of the Electoral Act 2022 provides that: “On completion of all the Polling Unit voting and results

procedures, the Presiding Officer shall:

(i) Electronically transmit or transfer the result of the Polling Unit, direct to the collation system as

prescribed by the Commission.

(ii) Use the BVAS to upload a scanned copy of the EC8A to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV), as prescribed by the Commission.

(iii) Take the BVAS and the original copy of each of the forms in tamper evident envelope to the Registration Area/Ward Collation Officer, in the company of Security Agents.

 

“The Polling Agents may accompany the Presiding Officer to the RA/Ward Collation Centre.” It is mandatory and compulsory. INEC has no option.

 

“So, the failure to upload results and follow the procedures set out in paragraph 38 of the manual made pursuant to the Electoral Act 2022, is a fundamenal breach that has the potential of rendering the election results that did not follow those procedures null and void.

 

“For clarity, Section 64 (4) (a) and (b) of the Electoral Act, 2022 specifically provide thus:

 

“A collation officer or returning officer at an election shall collate and announce the result of an election subject to his or her verification and confirmation that the –

(a) number of accredited voters stated on the collated result are correct

and consistent with the number of accredited voters recorded and transmitted

directly from polling units under section 47

 

(2) of this Act ; and (b) “votes stated on the collated result are correct and consistent with the votes or results recorded and transmitted directly from Polling Units under Section (60) (4) of this Act”.

 

He further said, “Consequent on the above Section 60 (4) of the Electoral Act 2022, any result announced by INEC is ultra vires, illegal, and of no consequence unless they are results already transmitted DIRECTLY from the Polling Units.

 

“So, procedurally, INEC cannot continue to announce results that are yet to be transmitted as expressly stated in the relevant Sections of the Electoral Act.

 

“The law is that where the law has set out the procedures to be followed, that procedures and no other must be followed.

 

“The argument that INEC guidelines have no force of law is idle and wayward arguments.

 

“This is not even the question of alterations of the results. It is a question of non-compliance with mandatory statutory provisions.

 

“The argument that it is only when the Chief Electoral Officer of the Federation announces the winner of the Presidential election that the results can be uploaded on the INE C portal cannot be correct.

 

“There must be uploading of results at the polling units after the polling officers had announced the winner at the polling units.

 

“Finally, we call on the commission to thread on the path of honor by canceling the election outright and commence the process of a fresh election that will not only be credible but will be seen to be credible by Nigerians.“

 

Speaking shortly after Okowa, Baba-Ahmed said, “I align myself with what my brother, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa said.”

 

He enjoined the INEC chairman to take the path of honour by doing the right thing.

 

The LP Vice Presidential candidate also noted that everything was at stake with this election because the future of our nation is at stake.

.We’ll defeat anti-democratic forces, protect Tinubu’s mandate – APC

… Urges Atiku, Obi to emulate Jonathan concede defeat

The All Progressives Congress, APC has made it clear that it will not succumb to pressure from the opposition parties which are demanding the cancellation of the presidential election held on Saturday, warning that it has the capacity to withstand all the anti-democratic forces against it.

 

The party’s Presidential Campaign Council, PCC also said that it will protect and defend the mandate freely given to its party and Presidential Candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and running mate, Senator Kashim Shettima.

 

Addressing a press conference in Abuja on Tuesday, the Special Adviser, Media, Public Affairs and Strategic Communication, Dele Alake also condemns the interference by the former President Olusegun Obasanjo on the outcome of the presidential election, warning that his plans was aimed at truncating the democracy in Nigeria

 

He said, “The APC-PCC wants to say emphatically that former  President Obasanjo has no moral right to meddle in this election let alone calling for its cancellation because he is an interested party having publicly, on January 1 this year, endorsed the candidate of Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi.

 

“Although we stand by our position as stated yesterday not to jump the protocol governing the announcement of the election results and allow Independent National Electoral Commission to perform its constitutional duty, we want to tell the gathering anti-democratic forces that we have the strength, the determination and the will to protect and defend this process and the soon-to-be-formally announced mandate freely given to our party and Presidential Candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and running mate, Senator Kashim Shettima.

 

“We are very well aware of the plan of the PDP and their Labour Party collaborators to heighten tension in the country and create general state of fear through their sponsored Television and Radio surrogates who continue to push false narratives about the general conduct of the election. We are also aware of the coordinated assault aimed at discrediting the whole electoral process and the integrity of INEC by their so-called paid and partisan agents who wear the toga of Election Observers.

 

“We consider Obasanjo’s failed attempt to scuttle the process through his unsolicited advice to President Muhammadu Buhari to cancel the election as part of the grand orchestration of many evil plots to truncate democracy in Nigeria.

 

“The integrity of the electoral process has been attested to by the international observers such as the Commonwealth, ECOWAS, European Union and African Union observer missions who adjudged the election as peaceful, free and fair whilst they identified areas of logistical improvements INEC should take into consideration in future elections.

 

“As you are well aware, the election was replete with drama. We saw the APC presidential candidate, party chairman and PCC director-general, losing their home states to Labour Party. Our DG also lost his bid to the Senate.

 

“We have also seen how Governor Samuel Ortom, a Labour Party backer lost his state of Benue to the APC. He also lost his bid to the Senate to the APC candidate. The Benue APC Tsunami was triggered by our popular governorship candidate, Father Hyacinth Alia and the party leader, George Akume. In Taraba, we have also witnessed how Governor Darius Ishaku lost his senatorial election.

 

“With all these hills and valleys and dramas that characterized the election, how can anyone claim the election was rigged or not transparent.

 

“We need to enjoin politicians to imbibe the democratic spirit. Elections are meant to test a candidate’s acceptance or popularity. In a National election, you must seek acceptance nationally. Ethnic champions can’t go far as democracy is a game of numbers. Wherever a candidate has the critical numbers, he wins. Wherever he is deficient, he loses. We have seen all these scenarios at play in the weekend election.

 

“We call on INEC to speed up the announcement of the result to quickly defuse the current atmosphere of anxiety in the country, so that Nigerians can move on from this election circle with a greater hope of a prosperity which our  candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu promised them during the electioneering campaign. We are happy to note that the stock market recorded a gain of over 260 Billion Naira on Monday following news that Asiwaju Tinubu will emerge as the President elect.

 

“In the meantime, we call on Nigerians and our supporters across the country to be peaceful, exercise more patience and not be provoked by the antics of the agents of darkness lurking around.

 

“Finally, we call on Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, to emulate former President Goodluck Jonathan by conceding defeat. This election has already been won by our candidate, according to the results declared at the collation centres in the state. In 2015, President Jonathan did not wait for INEC to finish collation before he called President Muhammadu Buhari and congratulated him in the true spirit of democracy and sportsmanship.

 

“We urge Atiku Abubakar and Obi to follow the same path of honour, instead of attempting to heat the polity via the reckless statements by surrogates. Let Atiku and Obi call Tinubu now.”