Agents of political parties have staged a walkout at the National Collation Centre (NCC) Abuja, over alleged discrepancies in the collation of results from last Saturday’s presidential election and the glitches recorded with the use of INEC Result Viewing portal (IReV) during the 2023 general elections.
Leading the agents out was the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) agent Dino Melaye, former deputy speaker of the House of Representatives Imo State who is also a PDP agent Emeka Ihedioha joined by the agent of the Labour Party, and others.
Addressing journalists, Melaye said agents resolved that the entire process should be canceled.
Melaye said they are completely dissociating themselves and that’s why they staged a walkout to express the alleged politicisation and commercialisation of the nation’s electoral process.
According to him, “What we are saying is that the system has been compromised, INEC compromised, we are saying the entire process should be canceled.
“We party agents have observed that the national chairman of INEC is determined to rig the election by making sure that results are not uploaded by vehemently making a presentation that makes us look as if we are all here to rubber stamp the fraud between an APC.
“We are saying that we are not here to rubber stamp the electoral fraud that has been prepared by INEC and All Progressives Congress (APC).
“We also know that there is no result on the server. He is now saying we should wait for the process to be completed. That there will be a review knowing fully well that after the announcement there can’t be any review.”
He stated that INEC has compromised, alleging that APC has influenced INEC and results are being changed.
He said, “We have records of where elections did not take place and results are being prepared.
“We have records of where the BVAS were not used and results have been pronounced which is difficult for the chairman to display the uploaded results so that we can compare it with that which is made by the state returning officers.”
Melaye said they did not display the uploaded results because they know that what will be displayed will be at variance with what will be presented to Nigeria.
“The electoral process has been rigged and we are disassociating ourselves from it,” he said.
Maybe he is the 2023 Godsday Orubebe who tried to disrupt the electoral collation process in 2015, he said he is not Orubebe but trying to ensure the right thing is done.
“I know my name. I am not Orubebe, I want the process to be transparent,” he said.
Also, Ihedioha said the Nigerians are worried about the integrity of the process.
He noted that Nigerians wanted an electronic voting system and the INEC Chairman promised that the system has come to stay.
“It was used in Ondo state, Osun, and other states. It is just obvious that on Saturday there were challenges. They have not been able to accept responsibility.
“They have enough time for me to interrogate the process and as we speak now they are writing results,” he added.
On his part, the national secretary of the Labour Party, Umar Farooq Ibrahim, said they have aired their observations and the national chairman of INEC refused to listen to them.
Ibrahim who doubles as the agent of the presidential coalition of the Labour Party said they want to force results from the coalition centre on them.
“He wants us to accept the results that came from the collation center in various states. We do not agree with that. And we have empirical evidence, and we have our agents who have observed they have informed us reliably that the BVAS machine has not been used, where they are used, they were compromised.
“The results of the BVAS machine have not been uploaded to the server and we observed on Saturday around the hour of 2 pm. The portal has gone down.
“The server has gone down and has reportedly and you have also acknowledged and pleaded with Nigerians that they are having a glitch in the observer. And now we still want to adapt and he wants us to accept what they are presenting here. And so on,” he stated.
The agent of the Action Peoples Party (APP) also Chinemelo Ubah said what they have been trying to do since morning, is to allow INEC to redeem themselves.
He noted that the election is not transparent.
“We cannot be a party to illegality. That is why we have staged a walkout,” he added.
On his part, the presidential agent of APC, Babatunde Ogala said since the result had been declared, any aggrieved party should head to court.
Responding, INEC chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu said Melaye quoted the wrong figure during his argument.
He, however, stressed that his observation was noted and the commission would look into it.
