The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has spoken on the violence that erupted in some areas in Lagos during the presidential and National Assembly elections on Saturday, February 25, 2023.
There were pockets of violence in some areas in Lagos on Saturday as thugs attacked polling units and destroyed election materials.
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Addressing the press at the International Conference Centre, ICC, in Abuja on Saturday, the Chairman of the Commission, Prof Mahmood Yakubu said that elections have been countermanded in some federal constituencies in Edo State.
He said the reason for countermanding the election in Esan North and Esan South was because of the missing logo of a political party on the ballot paper.
“We are aware of violence and destruction of elections materials at Mafoluku, Agege, Oshodi, and Elegushi. We have been able to normalise the situation in a number of places where election is currently ongoing,” he said.
“So we keep our eyes in the processes in the other areas that I have mentioned,” he said.
He continued “In Edo State, we handled a situation yesterday where one of the political parties whose acronym is on the ballot and the logo is not on the ballot paper in a federal constituency and after meeting with stakeholders, a decision was taken since the materials were intact to countermand the election. So we have suspended the election in Esan North, Esan South, and Igueben.”
Palpable Tension In Nigeria As INEC Officials Refuse To Upload Presidential Results On Server
There is growing disquiet across the country following the failure of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, to transmit the results of the February 25, 2023, presidential election to the server of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
According to reports from voters, polling agents, and eyewitnesses, INEC officials have claimed that they do not have passwords to upload the election results to the central INEC database.
While commenting on the issue through his official Twitter handle, the National Chairman of the Labour Party, Barrister Julius Abure, condemned the situation where the results of the presidential elections collated in various polling units in the state are not being uploaded to the central server.
According to Julius Abure, INEC officials, in connivance with the security agencies, claim that the BVAS has suddenly developed a fault and, therefore, cannot function.
Abure revealed that Labour Party agents had raised an alarm that INEC officials claim BVAS suddenly developed faults in places like Agege, Kosofe, Oshodi-Isolo, Surulere, and Ibeju Lekki, amongst others, where results show the party winning won convincingly.
“Information reaching me has it that in Lagos, they have refused to upload the results for the presidential election, they have uploaded that of the Senate and House of Representatives, but for the presidential, they have refused. And they are using the police to drive our agents and supporters out of the place. And they said that they have firm instruction from INEC headquarters not to upload.
“For example, in Kosofe, they put the collation centre in a Local Government Area Headquarters. The place is sorrounded by APC and people are afraid of their life. They are not uploading, they said that they have been giving instruction to insist that the BVAS is faulty. And most of the places we won, but they have refused to upload.
“As I speak, APC officials are in Yaba office of INEC negotiating with the officials. What I have said now is happening in Agege, Kosofe, Oshodi-Isolo, Surulere, we have this situation all over. In Ibeju Lekki, our local government chairman who attempted to stop them was arrested by the police.”
Abure further revealed a similar situation is playing out in Delta state, calling on INEC to ensure that only genuine and verifiable results generated from the various polling units should be uploaded.
Professor Pat Utomi, a senior Labour Party chieftain, also spoke out against the ugly trend in a since-deleted tweet, calling on the INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, to step up and remedy the situation.
“Just spoke to Labour Party Chairman Abure who fears that the upload failure epidemic may be seen by the youth as attempt to rig a clear Labour landslide across the country. He is scared that if they hit the streets Nigeria could burn. I urge Chairman Yakubu to redeem himself,” he tweeted.
Also commenting on the trending matter, Valentine Ozigbo, the Special Adviser to the Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, on Technology and Strategic Alliances, called for INEC to take steps so Nigeria does not implode owing to the failure of a technology that should have taken four years to perfect.
“This situation in which ONLY PRESIDENTIAL RESULTS are not being uploaded from the BVAS to the INEC Server as planned needs to be handled carefully. Millions of Nigerian youth are watching INEC’s next steps on this issue. We need responsible leadership at this time. Nigeria must not be allowed to implode because of a tech failure,” Ozigbo said.
BREAKING: @NgLabour Issues Official Statement On INEC Officials Refusing To Upload Presidential Election Results In Lagos, Delta 1/12#NigeriaDecides2023
— Valentine Ozigbo (@valentineozigbo) February 25, 2023
Source: Daily Post
