Three days later, the nation is becoming tenser as a result of the protracted wait for the results of Saturday’s presidential election. Yesterday, the Independent National Election Commission (INEC) started results collation after trying unsuccessfully to fix the delayed electronic transfer of results into the result viewing portal (IReV).
At the National Collation Centre in Abuja, a small drama broke out midway through the results announcement when representatives of the opposition parties staged a walkout. About ten individuals, including representatives of the Labour Party (LP), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Dino Melaye, and the former governor of Imo State, Emeka Ihedioha, accused INEC chairman Prof. Mahmood Yakubu of allegedly rigging the election in favor of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). As PDP agents led by Melaye disputed the presidential election results announced for Ekiti State on Sunday, they raised suspicion of fraud. Melaye also criticized the current process used to tally the presidential election results. Agents of LP and Action Alliance corroborated his observations (AA).
But, Prof. Akeem Olawale Lasisi, the collation officer for Ekiti and vice-chancellor of the Federal University of Health Sciences in Ila Orangun, Osun State, said that the Commission stood by that outcome.
After that, the INEC director announced a brief break.
Melaye and other disgruntled officials demanded, however, that the INEC chairman halt collation until results from the states were posted to the INEC Results Viewing Portal when the resumed collation at 4:00 p.m. (IReV).
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has urged President Muhammadu Buhari and the INEC chairman to immediately cancel elections that lack credibility to protect Nigeria from impending danger and disaster. The country is already on edge.
The Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and the Server for transmitting results from voting units, according to Obasanjo, were both compromised by INEC employees. In a letter to President Buhari and Yakubu from yesterday, the former president made the accusations.
Kehinde Akinyemi, Obasanjo’s special assistant on media, provided the letter to journalists in Abeokuta, the capital of Ogun State, in which he also accused electoral commission officials of rigging the results in favor of a particular candidate.
Similar to this, the National Peace Committee, whose co-chairs are Matthew Hassan Kukah, a Catholic bishop in the Sokoto Diocese, and former head of state Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar (rtd. ), has encouraged INEC to look into complaints made by Nigerians over the presidential election.
The Committee also urged INEC to take all the time necessary to deliver results that will boost Nigerians’ confidence and are consistent with global best practices.
