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 fundamental 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.
