APC Accuses PDP, LP of Heating up Polity

The Presidential Campaign Council, PCC, of the governing All Progressives Congress, APC, has accused the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and the Labour Party of planning to precipitate the crisis to discredit the results of the presidential and national assembly polls.

Director of Public Affairs and Chief Spokesperson, Tinubu/Shettima Presidential Campaign Council, Festus Keyamo, a Senior Advocate, on Sunday alleged that "Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) were presently putting undue pressure on some State Resident Electoral Commissioners of INEC to alter the results duly collated in the States before proceeding to Abuja to submit the results.''

"This is despite the fact that the collated results are already well known by the public and the political parties as they were publicly declared, unit by unit and at the State level and electronically transmitted. This is with a view of creating disparities in both the transmitted results and the hard copies and thereby sparking nationwide crises.

Arguing that the results of the election is one of the best so far conducted by INEC in the country, Keyamo We fully salute the resoluteness and steadfastness of these RECS so far and encourage them to continue their resilience in the face of such pressures. We salute INEC for organising, as we can see for now, one of the best elections in Nigeria from time immemorial.

He said the PCC has reliable information that the Labour Party was mobilising for what he described as another ENDSARS protest across the country next week and appealed to the security agencies to rise to the occasion and check those he considered were try "foist their will on the rest fo Nigerians" and "give the State RECs 24-hour close-guard and maximum protection as they travel to submit their results in Abuja.

YIAGA Africa Scores BVAS Performance High

YIAGA Africa has rated the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) used in the presidential and National Assembly polls on Saturday high.

Yiaga Africa’s Watching The Vote in its preliminary findings released in Abuja on Sunday, said the accreditation machines functioned well in 88 percent of the polling units its election observers monitored across the country.

Chairman of the organisation's Watching

The Vote Working Group, Dr Hussaine Abdu and Executive Director, YAIGA Africa, Samson Itodo, signed the report, which also addressed issues on voters 'intimidation, transmission of results and presence of party agents .

It read, in part, “In 88 per cent of polling units, the BVAS functioned properly. However, in nine per cent of polling units, the BVAS malfunctioned, and it was fixed and in two per cent of the polling units, it malfunctioned and was replaced,” .

On secrecy of balloting, the report said, “In five per cent of polling units, there were no voting cubicles. Similarly, 13

Labour Party Calls For Cancellation of Presidential Poll

Rising from an emergency exco meeting in Abuja on Sunday, Labour Party, LP, has called for the cancellation of the ongoing presidential election as the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, cannot upload results into its server from the polling units.

The national chairman of the party, Julius Abure, made the call, saying INEC had given room for doubt in the credibility of the process. Abure described the inability of INEC to upload results after over 12 hours as worrisome, calling it electoral robbery.

He claimed that the party was robbed of victory in some states such as Lagos, Rivers, Edo, Delta and Imo following alarming manipulation of BVAS machines and uploading of fake results , orchestrated violence by thugs believed to have been sponsored by state governments during the presidential and national assembly elections which held on Saturday . He therefore called for a rerun of the presidential poll to make for fairness per cent of polling units were set up in a way individuals could see how the voters marked their ballot papers.”

On voter intimidation, it said its observers reported that it was only in five per cent of the polling units that voters faced intimidation, harassment or were assaulted, while situations that were identified as likely voter inducement were observed at seven per cent of the monitored polling units.

It noted that the frontline parties, namely All Progressives Congress, APC, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, the Labour Party and the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP present agents across most of the polling units.

“During counting, All Progressives Congress (APC) party agents were sighted at 97 percent of polling units; Labour Party (LP) polling agents were sighted at 67 percent of polling units; New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) polling agents were sighted at 51 per cent of polling units, and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) at 99 per cent of polling units,” adding that.

Drivers Protest Non-payment in Enugu, Refuse Deploying Election Materials

Some commercial bus drivers in Enugu, chartered by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) refused to deploy election materials over nonpayment.

The drivers, speaking at the INEC office in New Gariki, Enugu North Local Government Area, requested the electoral body to pay them upfront for their service

NAN reports that the drivers refused to move out until they were paid.

Michael Agugu, one of them, said they “would not carry the materials because INEC has not paid them their money Although they said that they had given one of our members the money to share with us but up till now, we have not received the money,” Agugu said

“I am not going to carry any materials if I am not paid at hand because anything that happened on Election Day is part of the election.

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...Doubts as Results

Trickle in Two Days After

He however reassured Nigerians “that the problem was not due to any intrusion or sabotage of our systems and that the IRev remains well-secured.”

According to him, the Commission’s technical team was working hard to solve the problems. “We also assure Nigerians that the results from the polling Unit copies which were issued to political parties are safe on both the BVAS and the IRev portal. The results cannot be tampered with and any discrepancy between them and the physical results used in collation will be thoroughly investigated and remediated in line with Section 65 of the Electoral Act 2022. We take full responsibility for the problems and regret the distress that they have caused the candidates, political parties and the electorate.”

Collation Postponed Till Monday

INEC Chairman on Sunday night announced the postponement of collation of election results till Monday, February 27, 2023. He made the announcement immediately after the result of the presidential poll in Ekiti State was announced by the returning officer for the state.

Giving reasons for the postponement, Yakubu said the results from other states had not arrived in Abuja. He added that collation of results would continue at 11am on Monday. In the Ekiti result that was fully announced early on Sunday, Tinubu secured 201,486 votes to beat Obi and Atiku, who polled 11,397 and 89,554, respectively.

Way Forward

CNPP’s Ezugwu, who argued that the current delay in announcing the results of the presidential election was raising more suspicion that INEC had an ulterior motive or acting out a script to produce a particular candidate other than the one voted for by Nigerians, called on “the international community to note these observations and pressure INEC to do the needful by ensuring compliance to its own guidelines.”

Big Wigs Lose In Key Races

In Delta State, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, the Peoples Democratic Party’s Vice Presidential candidate and his party suffered a massive defeat statewide losing even his ward and local government to the Labour Party wave which swept across the South-South and South Eastern States. House Minority Leader, Ndudi Elumelu also lost his reelection bid in the Aniocha/Oshimili Federal Constituency race.

Also, Hon. Victor Nwokolo, the longserving member representing Ika Federal Constituency on the platform of the PDP and Chairman of the House Committee on Banking and Currency, lost his reelection bid to the LP.

In Enugu State, Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, one of the G5 Governors opposing his party’s candidate, Atiku Abubakar’s presidential bid, shockingly lost his Enugu North Senate poll to the Labour Party’s Chief Okey Ezea.

In Cross River, Governor Ben Ayade of the All Progressives Congress (APC), was defeated in the Cross River North Senatorial poll by the incumbent, Jarigbe Agom Jarigbe of the PDP.

A similar scenario played out in Taraba State where Governor Darius Ishaku lost the Taraba South Senatorial poll to businessman, David Jimkuta of the All Progressives Congress, APC.