By Harry Awurumibe, Editor Abuja Bureau
Two prominent civil society activists, Barrister Samson Itodo and Austin Aigbe have blamed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and politicians for the electoral infractions witnessed in the November 11 governorship elections in Bayelsa, Kogi and Imo states
They also criticised the role of security agencies and non-state actors, arguing that the elections conducted by INEC in the recent time have not lived up to the expectations of many Nigerians and the international community.
Speaking on Channels Television breakfast programme Sunrise Daily monitored in Abuja on Monday, Itodo who is the Executive Director of YIAGA Africa lamented that the outcome of the three off-cycle governorship elections in Bayelsa, Kogi and Imo are without many complaints even as INEC has gone ahead to declare winners of the elections in the states despite protestations by candidates who took part in the exercise.
Specifically, Itodo said INEC did not cover itself in glory if the infractions that occured in Imo, Bayelsa and Kogi states during the elections on Saturday are anything to go by, pointing out that some Polling Units (PUs) with zero voters returned large chunk of votes counted in favour of particular party’s candidate.
He also alleged that a careful look at the results declared by the INEC Collating Officer in Owerri and the results uploaded in the iREV are not the same as they one harvest at the PUs, saying that there discrepancies in the two results.
Also he said pre-filling of Result Sheets in some locations especially as detected in Kogi state is not only unacceptable but criminal as he called on the electoral umpire (INEC) to come out clean or be condemned to eternal ridicule which the 2023 Presidential Election sparked.
The YIAGA Africa boss regretted that the manual collation of results by INEC recognised by Supreme Court of Nigeria has made nonsense of the use of technology to improve Nigeria’s electoral process, stressing that for this singular reason Nigerian
politicians have now mastered the acts of undermining the election intergrity.
Said he: “Politicians have succeeded in impugning on the credibility of our elections especially the credibility of BVAS and iREV, technology designed to improve our elections and make it credible. In fact, Nigerian
politicians have mastered the acts of undermining the election Intergrity.
“Unfortunately, the Supreme Court position on the use of technology in our elections has been exploited by our political class. This is a very dangerous trend”.
Itodo cannot understand why the Supreme Court is saying that BVAS and iREV are not part of the Electoral Law while the Nigeria Constitution, Electoral Act and INEC Election Guidelines have given the Commission unfettered power to use technology to conduct elections in Nigeria by granting it the power to determine how the Commission will conduct its elections.
Also appearing in the same programme, Aigbe who is a Senior Program Officer, at the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) Nigeria, where he supports governance and people-centred development programmes decried all kinds of manipulations the technological devices designed to improve Nigeria’s electoral process have been subjected to in the recent elections.
According to him the three off-cycle governorship elections in Bayelsa, Kogi and Imo states did not meet the expected standards, pointing out that results from across the three states indicated that the elections were marred by unprecedented vote selling and buying, thuggery and electoral malpractices.
Also, Aigbe could not understand the rationale for declaring winners in elections that there were clear infringements as was recorded in Kogi state yet INEC went ahead to announce the winner after the Commission had told Nigerians that it has suspended election in some locations in Kogi state.
Prompt News reports INEC had on Saturday announced the suspension of election in some locations in Kogi state where result sheets were completed before the commencement of voting. The incident occurred in nine out of 10 Wards in Ogori/Magongo Local Government Area (LGA). READ ALSO:
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Other locations that reports of similar and other incidents occurred are in Adavi (5 Polling Units in Okunchi/Ozuri/Onieka Ward), Ajaokuta (5 Polling Units in Adogo Ward), Okehi (1 Polling Unit in Eika/Ohizenyi Ward) and Okene (5 Polling Units in Obehira Uvete Ward). Results from the affected Polling Units have been accounted for in Form EC40G for the four LGAs.
One of the governorship candidates in Kogi and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) flag bearer Senator Dino Melaye blew the whistle on Saturday of the electoral infractions in some locations and threatened not to go out to vote in the election in protest.
INEC has since declared the candidates of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Imo, Hope Uzodimma and Kogi, Usman Ododo winners of the November 11 elections while the candidate of PDP in Bayelsa, Douye Diri as winner too.
