POLITICS
Main Opposition Party, LP Protest INEC’s Failure to Upload Results
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP), yesterday staged a walk-out protest following the inability of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to upload the results of last Saturday’s election to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV).
The agents of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Dino Melaye and former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Chief Emeka Ihedioha, as well as the agent of the Labour Party (LP) and Umar Farouk led some of the parties to walk out at the National Collation centre in Abuja.
Before their dissociation, the INEC Chairman Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, had cautioned Melaye not to be ‘disruptive’ of the collation process at the insistence of the PDP chieftain that the results announced by the State Collation Officer for Presidential Elections (SCOPEs) should have first been uploaded on the INEC results viewing portal (iReV) for transparency and accountability.
The seven parties that walked out are the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Labour Party (LP), the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP), the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), the Action Congress (AC) and the Action Democratic Party (ADP).
“The electoral Act 2022 states that election results will be transmitted directly to the server. We found out that this has not been done because INEC failed in this regard.
“What I said in the morning was that when the State collation officers are making their presentation, we want to have two portals , we want to see the results that were uploaded to the portal as against the manual presentation made by the State Collation officers. This will help us interrogate whatever is being presented because we know that the transmission of the results straight from the BVAS is the most authentic way and that is the reason why the electoral act was amended abinitio.
“It was amended to create transparency; it was amended to give credibility and viability to the process. And if Nigerians have spent hundreds of billions of naira to introduce electronic transmission of results, and if Nigerian Lawmakers have amended the Act to accommodate electronic transmission and distribution of results, and now that is not being done as against the promise by INEC.
“It shows there was foul play, and we insisted that that should be done and the INEC chairman categorically told us he is not going to do it. So because of that we are staging a walkout and we are calling for the outright cancelation of the whole process.
“When I raised this issue today and supported by other party agents, the INEC Chairman vehemently evaded the issue. What section 47(3) emphasis is that where ever the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) failed, if they cannot get a replacement, elections should be cancelled in those areas. We have seen from the presentation of results from Ekiti yesterday that some places were cancelled as a result of bypassing the BVAS.
“The only way to detect that BVAS has been bypassed is for us to see the uploaded results. We insisted that the chairman should show us here and now the uploaded results state by state, just like they are projecting the results they are presenting. That is the only way to test the veracity and authenticity of these results.
“If not, we are only here to endorse the fraud that has been done from unit to the ward to the state. We are not here to rubber stamp infractions and the anomalies that have been done.
“We are here to check them, but the INEC Chairman is not giving us the opportunity to question what they are doing, saying all has been done. What that mean is that we are here to rubber stamp. We are going to prove that we are not here to rubber stamp. We have no other country to call our own than this country.
“We are going to do everything humanly possible to make sure that the right thing is done. We have just met now and we are going to make a presentation by the time we resume. If they insist that they are not going to respond to us, then you will see the action we will take.
“But we want to tell you that we will not allow, having suffered pains in this country, having suffered hunger, killings, we will not allow a continuation of failure. We will ensure that the right thing is done.
“The INEC Chairman is putting his integrity on test. Nigerians are watching, the world is watching. Even the dead are watching to see what INEC will do,” Melaye said.
However at the resumption of collation, the PRP, APM, SDP, Accord, YPP, NRM, AAC, AA, NNPP, APC and Booth party agents dissociated their parties from the protest and that they support the collation of the remaining results.
In the results released today, the APC has won Ondo, Kwara, Oyo and Ogun states while the PDP took Gombe, Osun and Yobe states. The Labour Party on the other hand won Lagos and Enugu states.
The Abia Chapter of the INEC Staff Welfare Association (ISWA) has warned its members to uphold the integrity of the commission and guard against the culture of manipulating election results.
The Abia Chairman of the association, Mr Collins Eze, gave the advice at the group’s general meeting and end-of-year party in Umuahia.
Speaking in an interview with newsmen on the sideline of the ceremony, Eze said that the staff members were adequately aware of their enormous responsibility and should ensure free, fair and credible elections.
He said: “We have also told our colleagues that anywhere they find themselves they should make sure that they do the needful by ensuring transparency in the conduct of elections.
“We have always told them not to allow anybody to induce them with money to manipulate election results.
“I’m happy that they have been building the capacity of our colleagues on election processes.
“So, in the coming years, we won’t have any problem in ensuring free, fair and peaceful elections.”
He said that the end-of-year party was special as it afforded them the opportunity “to wine and dine together as well as thank God for sustaining them in 2024”.
Eze said that his leadership had introduced various means of assisting members in dire financial needs by providing platforms to solicit suppory for them.
He expressed gratitude to members for their support and cooperation, describing them as the “secret behind the success of this administration”.
He said that 34 of at least 350 staff members of the commission in the state retired from service in 2024.
According to him, the development has placed a huge financial burden on the association, in terms of their welfare and entitlement as members.
Report says that each member received a carton of tomato paste as Christmas gift from the association. (NAN)
A chieftain of All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Osita Okechukwu, has told the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to be thankful to God that its 16-year administration was not probed by the successive APC-led governments.Okechukwu stated this on Tuesday in Abuja, while reacting to a statement by PDP congratulating Ghanaians for the conduct of free, fair and transparent general elections.
Report says that PDP had, in a statement, said that the verdict of the people of Ghana in the presidential election was a signal to the APC that its days were numbered. The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, had said in the statement that the power of the people in Nigeria, just like in Ghana, would ‘surely prevail and end the APC’s oppressive rule’.This, he said, would “return Nigeria to the path of good governance, security, political stability and economic prosperity on the platform of the PDP in 2027.”However, in his reactions to Ologunagba’s statement, Okechukwu said that the PDP clan should thank God that former President Muhammadu Buhari and President Bola Tinubu, out of sheer statesmanship, had refused to probe ‘the 16 locus years of PDP administrations’.Okechukwu, a former Director-General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), described the 16 years of PDP administrations as ones full of squandering and lack of plan.He said that Nigeria had yet to recover from the humongous culture of impunity and trust deficit planted by PDP on the Nigerian soil.Okechukwu said corruption was among the culture of impunity, saying it governed the privatisation of Nigeria’s electricity value chain, a key element in the country’s industrialisation drive.“Another is the blatant rigging of the 2007 general elections which the foremost beneficiary, President Umaru Yar’Adua, out of good conscience and noble magnanimity, publicly acknowledged the malfeasance which characterised his victory,” he said.Okechukwu also mentioned what he called conscienceless sale of the legislative and ministerial quarters, the annual rentage of which, he said, was bleeding the country’s treasury.“Another one is the neglect of $23 billion Greenfield Refinery, which could have saved over $70 billion expended on importation of refined petroleum products and which simulated the economic hardship of today,” he said.On why, for nine years, the APC administration could not fix those challenges, he recalled the efforts made by the Buhari administration to reopen talks on the Greenfield Refinery which, according to him, the Chinese regrettably rebuffed.The former VON director-general said that Nigerians were not in a hurry to forget the deliberate breach of the rotational convention of president from the north to the south.He said that the country could not also forget the utter disregard for Section 7 of the PDP’s constitution which expressly mandated zoning.Okechukwu advised the PDP not to insult the sensibilities of Nigerians by assuming that citizens would easily forget how they were put in the harms way.He said that PDP should thank God that Buhari and Tinubu did not want to probe them, adding “that’s why Nigerians cannot decipher the difference between the two political parties.” (NAN)
Sen. Ned Nwoko (PDP-Delta) says that Local Government Administration is central to democracy in Nigeria as it ensures grassroots governance and service delivery at the local level.This is contained in a statement signed by Dr Michael Nwoko, the Chief of Staff to the lawmaker in Abuja on Monday.Nwoko said this on the occasion of the presentation of an award “Icon of Hope” to him by the Association of Local Government Vice Chairmen of Nigeria (ALGOVC).
He was represented by his Chief of Staff. He said that the importance of local government administration in the country could not be overemphasised, as it was the bedrock of democracy.According to him, local governments in Nigeria play key roles in the country’s democracy by promoting participatory democracy, providing services, and representing citizens.“Local Governments help determine local needs and how to meet them. They also act as a link between the centre, state, and local people.“They are created to decentralise power and bring the government closer to the people. They perform both mandatory and concurrent functions.“It is in view of this that I took it upon myself to enhance the viability of local governments through the Paris and London club loan refunds,”he said.Dr Folashade Olabanji-Oba, ALGOVC National Chairman, while presenting the award at its 7th Annual National Conference, said the award was in recognition of the lawmaker’s significant contributions to strengthening local government administration.She highlighted Nwoko’s critical role in ensuring the Paris and London Club loan refunds, a financial breakthrough she said enhanced the capacity of local governments nationwide.(NAN)
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