The Labour Party has rejected the results being announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the 2023 presidential, House of Representatives and Senatorial elections.
A statement issued on Sunday by the party chairman, Julius Abure, said the electoral exercise has been marred by irregularities, voter intimidation, violence and result manipulations.
Abure, who had on Saturday raised alarm that INEC’s delayed transmission of results into INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) portal in real time will create room for manipulation of results, said that Labour Party has concrete evidence that results have been doctored in Lagos State, Rivers State, Imo State, parts of Edo State, Delta State, and some Northern states.
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He said that INEC’s failure to follow established processes has allowed both state and non-state actors to influence the outcome of the elections, causing millions of Nigerians, particularly the teeming youth, disappointment and disillusion.
On Saturday, reports that electoral officials were refusing to upload the presidential results to INEC’s IReV from different polling units across the country, in clear violation of the Electoral Act, littered social media as voting was ongoing.
Abure also noted that INEC officials had blamed their actions on the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, which they claimed was faulty, and also said that they have firm instructions from INEC headquarters not to upload the results.
INEC had in a statement on Sunday, assured Nigerians that the BVAS was not compromised and that their votes are safe.
“The Commission regrets this setback, especially because of the importance of IReV in our results management process. Consequently, the Commission wishes to assure Nigerians that the challenges are not due to any intrusion or sabotage of our systems, and that the IReV remains well-secured. Our technical team is working assiduously to solve all the outstanding problems, and users of the IReV would have noticed improvements since last night,” it said.
However, original copies of results being shared online by both Labour Party agents and supporters show differences in result figures INEC has on its portal, which shows Labour polling lower votes than it did in polling units. Abure said that and other evidence confirms that the result of the election is being doctored across the country.
He said that it took 24 hours for the presidential results, which were supposed to be uploaded in real time, to be sent to the INEC portal, creating enough time for the results to be manipulated.
The chairman said the decision of INEC to announce these doctored results based on manufactured voting, which were carried out under the watchful eyes and connivance of police officers at the various polling units and INEC offices, has defeated the efforts made by Nigerians to see that the Electoral Act was amended to allow for electronic transmission of results.
Read his full statement below:
As we are all aware, Nigeria held its general elections yesterday, an exercise that is ongoing as I speak. Yesterday, February 25, 2023, the Independent National Electoral Commission carried out elections nationwide for Presidential and National Assembly position.
The exercise has left millions of Nigerians disappointed and disillusioned because of the unprofessional conduct of state and non-state actors who participated in the process.
This press conference is to address the serious matters arising from the 2023 election, an extremely important election for Nigeria’s peace and development.
THE FAILURE OF INEC TO ABIDE BY THE PUBLISHED AND AGREED PROCESS
INEC by its conduct, has caused millions of Nigerians, particularly the teeming youth, who took part in this election with high hopes of a free and fair transparent process to hold strong feelings of disappointment and disillusionment.
The Electoral Act was amended in 2022 for the electronic transmission of results after they are declared at the polling units.
Nigerians participated in this process with the belief that the use of technology and adherence to the agreed electronic transmission of results to INEC servers at polling units would ensure free, fair, and transparent election.
Traditionally, Nigerians know that previous elections witnessed manipulations of results by desperate politicians at collation centres and polling units.
But, yesterday, Saturday, February 25, 2023, the very process which INEC assured Nigerians would be followed was truncated for whatever reasons. No matter what those reasons are, they are totally unacceptable to Nigerians and members of our party.
INEC servers shut down, and ONLY PRESIDENTIAL elections could not be uploaded onto the INEC server. The Bimodal Voter Accreditation System did not work as planned.
This failure has undoubtedly given room for manipulating the presidential results being announced by the INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu at the Collation Centre in Abuja.
We have sufficient documentary evidence that confirms that manipulations of the presidential election results have occurred in Lagos State, Rivers State, Imo State, parts of Edo State, Delta State, and some Northern states.
These manipulations were carried out under the watchful eyes and connivance of police officers at the various polling units and INEC offices.
The decision of INEC to go ahead to announce these doctored results based on manufactured voting has defeated the efforts made by Nigerians to see that the Electoral Act was amended to allow for electronic transmission of results.
It is disheartening that 24 hours after the elections held across the country that INEC is still yet to upload the authentic results of the Presidential poll on its server. The excuse that the server is down is not tenable.
Because we had meetings with INEC before the election, and they assured all political parties, and indeed Nigerians, that they had a DATA RECOVERY SERVER and in the event of a technical hitch, the emergency server would be used until the main server was brought back online.
We find it difficult to accept the flimsy excuse that the INEC servers were down.
INEC OFFICIALS REFUSING TO UPLOAD PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION RESULTS IN LAGOS AND DELTA STATES
We note the impunity which occurred in the entire Lagos State during the conduct of yesterday’s election.
There were widespread incidences of violence, ethnic profiling, and threats meted out on Nigerians, particularly those who supported the Labour Party and our Presidential Candidate, His Excellency Mr Peter Obi
LP agents report that in places like Agege, Kosofe, Oshodi-Isolo, Surulere, Ibeju Lekki, and others where results show that Labour won convincingly, INEC officials claimed that the BVAS suddenly developed faults when uploading results of the presidential election.
The same INEC officials uploaded the results of the National Assembly elections to the server without hitches.
INEC officials used the police to drive our agents and supporters out of the collation centre. And they said that they have firm instructions from INEC headquarters not to upload.
There were widespread incidences of violence, ethnic profiling, and threats meted out on Nigerians, particularly those who supported the Labour Party and our Presidential Candidate, His Excellency Mr Peter Obi.
LP agents report that in places like Agege, Kosofe, Oshodi-Isolo, Surulere, Ibeju Lekki, and others where results show that Labour won convincingly, INEC officials claimed that the BVAS suddenly developed faults when uploading results of the presidential election.
The same INEC officials uploaded the results of the National Assembly elections to the server without hitches.
INEC officials used the police to drive our agents and supporters out of the collation centre. And they said that they have firm instructions from INEC headquarters not to upload.
In Kosofe, they put the collation centre in a Local Government Area Headquarters. The place is surrounded by APC members, and people fear for their lives. INEC officials were not uploading the results. They said they had been instructed to insist that BVAS are faulty.