JUST-IN: INEC National Collation Centre Goes On Break, To Resume By 3:30pm

The National Collation Centre of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced a break till 3:30pm on Tuesday.

Recall that the INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, had on Monday, said the collation will commence at 11:00am on Tuesday, February 28, 2023, however, the collation was yet to commence as Nigerians anticipate the 2023 General Election results.

The Commission has so far announced the results of 14 states.

However, the national commissioner and chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, declared the break over the absence of presidential election results from 23 states including the Federal Capital Territory (Abuja).

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At the time of filing this report, he claimed that some of the Commission’s Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs), the State Collation Officers for Presidential Election (SCOPEs) were already airborne.

“This is because we have seven of the Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs), the State Collation Officers for Presidential Election (SCOPEs) at the National Collation Centre (NCC), four of them just landed at the airport and are on their way to NCC.

“We also have five that are already airborne. So we have decided as a Commission to have a substantial amount of RECs so that when we begin the collation, we can go on a stretch,” he added.

The INEC chairman, Yakubu had earlier set certain ground rules for the collation of election results, advising political parties and media to only draw their figures from INEC.

On the delay in the collation of results, Yakubu said the process has to go through four levels.

“The collated ward level results are tallied and collated at the 774 local government areas nationwide.

“Thereafter, they are tallied and collated in each of the 36 states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory.

“The collated figures for each state and the Federal Capital Territory are finally collated here in Abuja where the announcement of the outcome of the election will be made by the Returning Officer for the Presidential Election, who also doubles as the Chief Electoral Commissioner of the Federation,” he stated.

Prof. Mahmood noted that the collation center would remain open until the final determination of the 2023 presidential election.