News
Again, INEC promises electronic transmission of results *It’s the law – Yakubu
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Sunday, restated its assurance to Nigerians that results of next month’s governorship elections in Imo, Kogi and Bayelsa States, will be transmitted electronically to its central portal in Abuja.
The latest clarification, the second in 48 hours, came from Obo Effanga, Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), in Bayelsa, who was earlier quoted as saying that the commission would adopt manual means in conducting the election, now apparently recanting his earlier position, following the intervention of Mahmood Yakubu, who had earlier asked Nigerians to ignore the information.
Yakubu, had contrary to the information credited to the Bayelsa REC, told reporters at the polling units visited at Ganaja Village, Ajaokuta, that Nigerians should disregard reports that INEC would transmit the results of the governorship elections manually.
He was quoted to have said: “The method is as provided by law; electronic accreditation, electronic upload of results on the IREV portal and that is why we are doing this mock. So, please disregard whatever was reported about what the REC was said to have said in Bayelsa. That’s going to be the procedure and it’s for that reason that I will advise those who are registered on the IREV portal, that in the next two hours or so, they should go to the IREV portal to see results of the mock accreditation from all the three states. We are uploading, as we had done in previous elections.”
The coming election, would be the first since the 2023 general elections conducted by the commission, which outcome is still ditched in heavy controversies.
Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and Peter Obi, his Labour Party (LP), counterpart, are still in court to challenge the outcome of the election, partly on the ground that the non-transmission of the results, real time skewed the February 25 polls in favour of President Bola Tinubu, the candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
At the Court of Appeal, Abuja, sitting as the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT), INEC and the APC had claimed that the commission was not bound to upload the results electronically, even after it had assured Nigerians that it was going to be fully deployed during all the elections.
Confronted with the issue of which method the commission would adopt, Effanga, had told reporters at the weekend that it was going to be purely manual and that there was not going to be electronic process, a contention believed in some quarters to be at variance with the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022, which forbade the manual process.
But, taking a cue from Yakubu’s clarification, Effanga, a guest of Sunday Politics, a public affairs programme on Channels Television, was quoted as saying that the results from polling units in the three elections to be conducted on November 11, would be uploaded on the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV), real time as was the case before the 2023 polls, where the commission blamed “glitches” for not doing so, especially in the presidential edition.
His words: “The IReV has come to stay just like the BVAS has come to stay. IReV was first used in 2020 by INEC. It is the INEC result viewing portal. It is a portal where polling unit results are uploaded – photos of the polling unit results. INEC has been doing that since 2020 and will continue to do that.
“The portal is ready and was used in the recent mock accreditation held ahead of the elections. He is confident that with the deployment of technology, the polls will be hitch-free. Yes, it is ready to go. Yesterday when we had the mock accreditation, we used the IReV portal to upload information from the mock accreditation. In the locations where we did the accreditation, people came and got accreditation. That information was recorded on the BVAS – that is the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System. At the end of it, we also had a mock result sheet which we also used the BVAS to take a photograph of, and that was uploaded on the IReV.”
Peter Obi, candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), has given assignment to Nigerians to put all those aspiring to take up political positions in the country through the grill to ascertain their level of integrity, saying it was required as a sine qua non for the job they seek.
Obi, who has been a subject of discussion in the polity since the allegation of corruption was levied against him by Kenneth Okonkwo, spokesman of his campaign in 2023, over the conduct of the party’s primaries to choose candidates for the 2027 general elections, said the grilling must start with his own person.
A guest in an interview on a podcast with Rufai Oseni, a popular television anchor, the former Governor of Anambra State, stated that it was actually for this reason that he had now sworn to see the litigation he instituted against Okonkwo through.
His take is that the Nollywood actor should use the courtrooms to give all the details of bad behaviour, following his threat to expose him fully, after alleging that he was collecting money from aspirants in the said election for electoral favours.
Hear him: “The issue of taking Kenneth Okonkwo to court wouldn’t have arisen if he had stopped at those allegations. But he claimed he still has more he would expose about me in the future. So, I am very happy to take him to court so that he can expose me publicly, alongside other Nigerians. If any of them has any criminal allegations against me, they should bring them to court.
“Not just Kenneth, everybody should now say those things they know that is bad about me or I did that is wrong because it’s good for the system, it’s good for the society,” Obi said.
“So, if you know that when we were in primary school, this man was cheating or didn’t go to the primary school, didn’t go to secondary school, didn’t do, if you know this man has done something criminal somewhere, this is time to bring it up.”
For the umpteenth time, Atiku Abubakar, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has warned about the dangerous implication of using state institutions, particularly the judiciary to destroy Nigeria’s democracy, saying it is an ill-wind that blows nobody any good.
Atiku, presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), speaking on the heels of Tuesday’s verdict of the Court of Appeal, halting the de-registration order by the Federal High Court, insisted that judicial officers must not lend themselves to any act capable of undermining the nation’s democratic process.
The appellate court had ordered a stay of execution on the order made on Monday by Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court Abuja, for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to deregister the ADC alongside four other political parties).
A totally scandalised Court of Appeal, sitting in Abuja, had taken umbrage, sparing no hard words in upbraiding the lower court judge, stating that his likes were unfit to sit on the bench.
In a unanimous ruling by a three-man panel, the court held that Lifu’s action was “the highest form of judicial impertinence”, stressing that the Supreme Court previously held that a judge who acted in such a manner.
Describing his conduct as the height of judicial rascality, the upper court, stated: “Courts are enjoined to protect their integrity. This Court has supervisory authority over the trial court.
“The decision of the lower court to proceed with the judgment despite the express order of this court is a brazen violation of the hierarchy of the court and the 1999 Constitution.
This court has the duty to invoke its powers in ensuring that its orders are obeyed. The application for a stay of execution is here yet granted. The enforcement of the judgment is stayed.”
Atiku, who hailed the position of the higher court, which restored his hope to be on the ballot as presidential candidate in the 2027 election, also noted the role of INEC as “significant.”
He said: “I welcome the Court of Appeal’s decision to stay the execution of the Federal High Court judgement seeking the deregistration of our great party, the ADC, and four other political parties. It is particularly significant that INEC itself initiated the application for the stay.
“The development reflects growing public concern over judicial contradictions and politically charged rulings within the judiciary. “Any attempt to undermine Nigeria’s hard-won democracy through judicial manipulation is a grave danger to the Republic. If our democracy suffers further injury, history will demand accountability from those entrusted with dispensing justice.
Outside ADC, Lifu’s order, also included: Action Democratic Congress (ADC), Action Peoples Party (APP), Action Alliance (AA), Accord Party (AP) and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP), similarly slammed for allegedly failing to meet the constitutional requirements for continued registration and participation in elections.
“He is running in contempt of the court. Justice Lifu should be arrested because he is acting in contempt of the court which is a criminal act,” were the exact words with which the African Democratic Congress (ADC), demonstrated its angst over the court ruling on Monday, ordering its de-registration as a political party in Nigeria.
A furious Bolaji Abdullahi, spokesman of the party, told his host while appearing as a guest on Monday’s edition of Politics Today, a public affairs programme on Channels Television that the judge of the Abuja Federal High Court who gave the order was actually playing with fire because of the consequences.
Directly accusing him of playing the script of the All Progressives Congress (APC), to ensure that President Bola Tinubu emerged the sole candidate for the 2027 presidential election, the party spokesman, was emphatic that the plan would not work, as head or tail, ADC must be on the ballot in all the elections.
Hear him: “There is a Court of Appeal order saying don’t hear this case until October 27. So, on what basis? You can’t place something on nothing. The Court of Appeal said don’t act on this until I hear it on October 27. So, on what basis did he deliver the judgement
“So, for us in the African Democratic Congress, what we’re convinced and they know is what they have done has no leg to stand on legally. What they want to do is to create doubts in the minds of the people that this ADC has too many legal cases, can we actually run on this? And to distract us. But we’re not distracted.
“We’re very clear. It was in spite of all they have done since ADC came on board that we ran one of the best and one of the most comprehensive direct primaries in the history of democracy in Nigeria. So, we are strong enough to withstand this. And that’s why I’m saying that we are going to contest in 2027. We’re ADC. We don’t buckle before dictatorship.”
Stressing on the implication of the judgement, which also affected Accord Party (AP), Action Peoples Party (APP), Action Alliance (AA), and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) for allegedly failing to meet constitutional and electoral performance requirements, following a suit by the National Forum of Former Legislators, he said it portended grave danger.
He added: “We are not surprised. We know that the Nigerian people believe that there is a problem with the judiciary, but what we did not expect is the level of judicial rascality that was demonstrated today.
“What we are saying is that we reject it in its totality, and we are saying that the people behind this are playing with fire. Hundreds, if not thousands, have obtained nomination forms and contested elections and emerged as candidates on the platform of the ADC.”
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