The vice presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, and his Labour Party (LP) counterpart, Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, have called for the cancellation of last Saturday’s presidential election.
Okowa and Baba-Ahmed, at a joint press conference in Abuja on Tuesday, said refusal of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to upload and transmit election results from the polling unit levels as provided by the law, was a breach of the Electoral Act 2022.
Okowa said it was unfortunate that the INEC chairman was carrying out the assignment in breach of the law.
“He is breaching the very law he fought for,” Okowa said.
He expressed concern that the INEC chairman fought for the Electoral Act he was now disobeying.
He said the INEC chairman should do what is right.
He, therefore, added that INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, should step aside if he cannot do the right thing.
“If the portal was down they should tell Nigerians and cancel the electio,” Okowa said.
He lamented that where there was a trust deficit, it would be difficult to move forward as a nation.
For his part, Baba-Ahmed, who adopted the position of Okowa, said INEC has put itself in a tight spot and was now relying on the court to sort its mess.
He said INEC was grandstanding despite realising the inconsistencies raised so far by the political parties.
“Whoever is in a hurry to tell people to go to court knows what they have arranged at the court,” Baba-Ahmed stated.
He said the promise of the INEC chairman to review the results after the election was a joke.
He said Nigeria was at stake and he was ready to deploy everything that is possible within the law to ensure it does not go under.
