Commonwealth Election Observer Group in Nigeria has urged aggrieved persons challenging the results of the just-concluded voting in the country’s Presidential and National Assembly elections to be patient, and observe restraint.
The Group further advised the aggrieved parties to direct their grievances ‘through prescribed legal channels,’ while awaiting the final results to be released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The Group said this while acknowledging the barrage of complaints against both the results of the elections so far released, as well as the conduct of the INEC officials in handling logistics issues during the polls.
It would be recalled that since the conclusion of the voting exercise, Saturday and Sunday, calls have mounted from several quarters, including those by former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, and leaders of the Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum (SMBLF) on INEC to discontinue the announcement of results over glaring electoral malpractices discovered during polling.
”The conduct of INEC on voter inclusivity, security, punctuality, logistics deployments, integrity and compliance to Electoral Act on electronic transmission of results has unfortunately created very serious mistrust between the electorates and INEC casting very serious doubts not only to their status as fair and unbiased umpire but very importantly on the credibility of the results that they are collating and announcing even without uploading most of the Polling Unit Result Sheets to their server as required by law.
“Apart from the fact that none of the 176,846 Polling Unit Results was electronically transmitted online real-time, evidences abound of faint Result Sheets uploaded, completely illegible.
“Video evidences of INEC Officials caught falsifying election results at local collation centres and voters attacked and locked out from voting on grounds of their tribe, religion or party affiliation are numerous in public domain, including destruction of ballots by hoodlums and senior Govt. officials while security men watched without acting; under-aged voting, among many infractions that would suggest ill-preparation and/or collusion.
“There were senior partisan Govt. officials interference at INEC Collation Centres to influence results, which could not have been possible had the results been transmitted electronically at the polling units as expected; and all available evidence points to one “favored political party getting away with murder”, thereby denying others ‘level playing field.’
“We unequivocally request INEC to immediately discontinue the national provocation called “National Collation of Presidential Result”, and retrace her steps back to where the ‘breach of process’ started; which is the real-time transmission of results at the polling units,” read SMBLF statement.
The SMBLF statement was signed by Chief Edwin Clarke, CFR, Leader PANDEF; Chief Ayo Adabanjo, CON, Leader Afenifere; Dr. Bitrus Pogu, Leader Middle Belt Forum; Chief Simon Okeke OFR, Representing Ohanaeze Ndigbo; Chief (Dr) Chukwuemeka Ezeife – Chairman Igbo Elders Consultative Forum; Babachir Lawal – Former SGF; Amb. Okey Emutchay – Secretary General Ohanaeze Ndigbo.
On his part, ex-President Obasanjo urged INEC to avert trouble by cancelling all elections in the 2023 polls conducted without the biometric identity verification and accreditation system (BVAS).
“Let me appeal to the Chairman of INEC, if his hands are clean, to save Nigeria from the looming danger and disaster which is just waiting to happen. If the Chairman can postpone elections four days to the election, he can do everything to rectify the errors of the last two days – no BVAS, no result to be acceptable; and no uploading through Server, no result to be acceptable.
“Whereas, BVAS and Servers have been manipulated or rendered inactive, such results must be declared void and inadmissible for election declaration. Chairman INEC, I have thought that you would use this wonderful opportunity to mend your reputation and character for posterity.
“Your Excellency, President Buhari Muhammadu, tension is building up and please let all elections that do not pass the credibility and transparency test be cancelled and be brought back with areas where elections were disrupted for next Saturday, March 4, 2023.
“BVAS and Server officials be changed. To know which stations or polling units were manipulated, let a Committee of INEC staff and representatives of the four major political parties with the Chairman of Nigerian Bar Association look into what must be done to have hitch-free elections next Saturday. Mr. President, may your plan and hope for leaving a legacy of free, fair, transparent and credible election be realised.
“The Chairman of INEC may claim ignorance but he cannot fold his hands and do nothing when he knows that election process has been corrupted and most of the results that are brought outside BVAS and Server are not true reflection of the will of Nigerians who have made their individual choices.
“At this stage, we do not need wittingly or unwittingly to set this country on fire with the greed, irresponsibility and unpatriotic act of those who allegedly gave money to INEC officials for perversion and those who collected the blood money,” Obasanjo’s statement read.
However, briefing the media, Monday, on the preliminary assessment of the electoral process, Chairperson of the Commonwealth Observer Group, and former President of South Africa, Mr. Thabo Mbeki, surprising adjudged the polls conduct as ‘largely peaceful,’ which according to him, was despite administrative and logistical hurdles at many polling units.
Mbeki who maintained that ‘Nigerians were largely accorded the right to vote,’ however, hailed the Nigerian electorate ‘for their determination, patience and resilience displayed throughout the electoral process.’
“We call on all those with grievances to address disputes through prescribed legal channels… The time now is for restraint and continued patience as we await the final results,” Mbeki stated, while acknowledging ‘the commitment shown by voters, despite the late arrival of election officials and materials at many polling units, technical issues with biometric identification machines in some cases, and delays with the live results transmission system.’
Commonwealth Observer Group further noted ‘some inconsistencies in procedures, particularly in the positioning of some polling booths which compromised the secrecy of the ballot, as well as, lack of advance voting for those deployed on election day.’
“As voting hours extended into the night due to late openings, some polling units were ill-equipped with proper lighting to facilitate voting and counting in the dark,” Mbeki said.
The Group, therefore, encouraged the electoral commission to conduct a thorough post-election review of the electoral process to draw lessons and consider setting up appropriate mechanisms to implement the recommendations of observers.
The chairperson while also noting the low percentage of women candidates, said it was however ‘impressed by the vibrant participation’ of young people, including as polling officials, in the elections.
The Commonwealth observers were in Benue, Edo, Kano, Lagos, Ondo, Rivers and Sokoto states as well as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to observe the accreditation, voting, counting and results aggregation, and met with electoral officials and observers to build up a broader picture on the conduct of the electoral process.