..Doubts as Results Trickle in Two Days After

PARTIES’, INEC’S REACTIONS

Unnerved by the developments, the major political parties reacted angrily and, in that process, further raised public fears and doubts about the polls.

According to the LP, INEC’s server had broken down and there was every likelihood that the results would be tampered with, leading to the emergence of a preferred candidate.

Speaking on this on Sunday, February 26, the DirectorGeneral of the Presidential Campaign Committee (PCC) of the LP, Akin Osuntokun, who identified an unnamed diplomatic source, said, “The results of the elections have been marred by irregularities marked by deliberate connivance between INEC and some forces. The other three major parties seem to be contented with the conduct of the polls marred by violence and snatching of ballot boxes in clear violation of the governing rules laid down by the Commission.”

Sooner had he said that than the PDP’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, sent his reaction to THEWILL newspaper on Sunday evening.

Media Adviser to Atiku, Mr Paul Ibe, said: “It will be a disservice to Nigerians and a negation of democracy for anyone to subvert the will of the people as freely expressed in their votes of yesterday,”quoting his principal.

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.”

He said that Atiku had asked the National Chairman of INEC, Yakubu, to instruct the Collation Officers for Saturday’s presidential election to upload the results from the polling units to the INEC server immediately.

Atiku’s call had “become necessary to checkmate some governors who are trying to compromise the results at the local government collation level,”

For the APC, both LP and PDP were making mere allegations designed to heat up the polity.

The Director of Public Affairs and Chief Spokesperson, Tinubu/Shettima Presidential Campaign Council, Mr Festus Keyamo, said: “On our part, we have decided to be calm to await the official announcement of the results and to pursue any grievance (if any) in a lawful manner. But we shall not sit back and allow such unguided comments to gain grounds in order to foist a particular narrative on our citizens and the international community. Recall that all parties signed the Peace Accord twice before the eyes of the world. Now is the time to abide by the terms of that accord and show love for the country over and above personal ambitions.

“We have all campaigned hard and strongly. The Nigerian people have listened to all of us and made their decisions. Now is the time to hear the voices of Nigerians as the results are released and not our own voices. The body officially designated to reflect the voices of Nigerians is the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). No Party can bully them by threatening to do its own bidding. Neither will the APC be cowed into silence by this disgusting antics of the opposition parties,”

INEC waded into the matter shortly before the commencement of collation and announcement of results at the National Collation Centre, Abuja at 6 pm on Sunday and debunked a rumour that the Commission’s portal had been shut down and results from 20,000 polling units fed into it by Saturday evening had disappeared by Sunday morning.

INEC’s National Chairman, Voter Education and Publicity, Mr Festus Okoye, said the news that the commission had yet to upload results in its portal were unfounded.

Arguing that he was unaware that the portal had been shut down, Okoye said, “I checked on Sunday morning and I saw results on the Senatorial, House of Representatives and Presidential polls. It is not true. By 10 pm on Saturday, results from polling units across the country had started coming in and one is confident that other results we are expecting will come in.”

On reports of growing disenfranchisement of voters due to the late arrival of materials, insecurity and absence of election materials in some polling units, Okoye re-echoed

Yakubu, who had earlier given his assurances of the Commission to resolve the issues amicably.

Lagos, Edo, Oyo, Delta, Kwara, Anambra and Kogi States were rocked by violence. In some parts of Bayelsa and Edo states where insecurity and the logo of a political party was missing in the ballot papers, Yakubu postponed voting. In Bayelsa, he said voting in four wards involving 141 polling units would take place on Sunday, February 26 while the affected three local government areas in Edo State, Esan North, Esan South and Igueben, will take their turn on Saturday, March 11, 2023.

Taking a sweeping observation of all these issues, the umbrella body for political parties in Nigeria, the Conference for Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) urged INEC to cancel results in polling units where BVAS machines were by-passed and mass thumb-printing and violence took place.

In a note sent to THEWILL on Sunday night, the SecretaryGeneral of the body, Chief Willy Ezugwu, said where these lapses in the electoral process infringed the legal and constitutional requirements for the conduct of a free and fair election.

Ezugwu said, “The legal framework for conducting the 2023 elections consists of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended; the Electoral Act, 2022; and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Election Regulations and Guidelines for the conduct of the elections.”

He argued that all verifications outside the BVAS were invalid because INEC’s introduction of the BVAS machines into the Nigerian electoral system was intended to serve as the only means of verification of the genuineness of the PVCs through the fingerprint or facial authentication of voters during accreditation.

“On the other hand, uploading the polling unit results to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) was intended to be in real-time on Election Day, which was substantially not the case.

“So, we are afraid that the election results from polling units to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) were suspiciously delayed because even results from different major cities across the country with good internet connections were not uploaded real-time to the INEC results portal.

“In the same vein, INEC officials were also being accused of bypassing the use of BVAS machines for accreditation in some parts of the country, especially in the North-East and North-West, leading to allegations of massive thumbprinting and stuffing of ballot boxes besides underage voting.

“The use of violence to scare voters as well as votebuying persisted in parts of the country throughout the presidential and national assembly elections on Saturday.

“We, therefore, call on the electoral body to exercise its powers under the law to cancel results of polling units where violence, vote buying or mass Thumb-printing of ballot papers took place.

BUHARI, MALAMI, GOV ORTOM AND SENATOR KALU ON THE HOT SPOT

Open display of ballot papers during voting on Saturday was a major setback for the electoral process. President Muhammadu Buhari, Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, Senator Orji Kalu, Governor Samuel Ortom were the major culprits, in clear violation of Section 122 of the Electoral Act which made requirements for secret balloting and prescribed a punishment of N100,000 fine or three months in prison or both.

Malami invited critical examination of the violation after he justified the act that President Buhari exercised his constitutional rights voluntarily as a third party. Two Senior Advocates of Nigeria, Mr Adeyinka OlumideFusika, and Mr Kunle Adegoke, knocked Malami, saying that Buhari as a voter was no third party even though they understand he may have acted that way for political reasons.

“The President clearly violated the law, though we understand why he did so. I would have preferred he did not do it as a president, Malami’s justification, quoting the constitution was wrong because Buhari was no third party in this matter,” said Olumide-Fusika.

For Adegoke, displaying ballot paper was “statutorily incorrect, its is an offence for anybody, no matter their status. Whatever the President and others did was not just a violation but criminal.

A Lagos-based legal practitioner, Mr Victor Ukutt, however said that President Buhari committed no offence by displaying the thumb-printed ballot paper to disclose the candidate he had voted for.

Ukutt, in a telephone chat with THEWILL, said President Buhari had not contravened the 2022 Electoral Act by displaying his thumb-printed ballot paper.

“I do not think there is a law President Buhari has contravened by displaying his thumb-printed ballot paper. You know what is happening in his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC). I think it is a way of reassuring the party and the presidential candidate of his support, though he did not keep to the rule of confidentiality,” Ukutt, Principal Partner, Victor Ukutt and Co, said.

CLAIMS AND COUNTER-CLAIMS

In the middle of the controversies and challenges facing INEC, with its viewing portal, the APC and PDP went into celebration mood, laying claims to victory even as official results were being expected.

In a statement on Sunday, the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, maintained that Atiku was coasting to victory as he expressed gratitude to Nigerians, even as he tasked INEC on transparent results collation. Ologunagba's statement came just as the spokesperson, Atiku/Okowa Campaign Organisation, Kola Ologbondiyan, asked the Tinubu/Shettima Campaign to “stop lamenting, accept its fate and hold back its tears pending the official announcement of the outcome of the February 25, 2023 Presidential election by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)."

Ologbodiyan, in a statement on Sunday, said: "The Tinubu/Shettima Campaign should come to terms with the decision by Nigerians to use their vote to recompense the APC for the excruciating hardship, anguish and pain it inflicted on our nation in the last seven and half years."

Inec Confirms Challenges With Result Viewing Portal

Late Sunday night, INEC owned up to observations and complaints about its portal.

In a statement, Okoye said the portal was undergoing hitches related to scaling up of the IRev from a platform for managing off-season state elections to one for managing nationwide general elections.

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