Nigeria Decides: PDP, LP, ADC call forfresh elections, sack of INEC as APC goes to court

,,,Call Tinubu to congratulate him now…APC PCC tells Atiku, Obi

… Protesters storm Presidential election collation centre, demand electronic transmission of results

By David Oluwaseun

The opposition  Peoples Democratic Party and Labour Party and the African Democratic Party have asked the Chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu, to step aside.

The three parties in a joint press conference on Tuesday, in Abuja alleged that the February 2023 presidential election was marred with violence, rigging and intimidation of voters.

The parties demanded the conduct of a fresh election.

“We are therefore constrained on this development to state that INEC compromised the integrity of this elections even before collation commenced at the polling units.

“Section 60 sub-section 5 of the Electoral Act says that the presiding officer shall transfer the results, including total number of accredited voter and the results of the ballots in a manner as prescribed by the commission.

“A failure to comply with the provisions of the Electoral Act and the guidelines makes it imperative that all results recently uploaded on the IReV portal must be updated before they are announced.

“INEC went back on that promise…This election is not free and far from being fair and transparent.”

“We shall not be part of the electoral process currently going on at the National Collation Centre and we demand that this sham of an election be immediately cancelled.

“We also call for a fresh election to be carried out in accordance to the laid down INEC procedure.”

“We therefore call on Yakubu to step aside from his role,” the LP National Chairman, Julius Abure, who delivered the position of the three opposition parties, said.

The parties asked Yakubu to step aside from his role as INEC Chairman for a “credible personality” outside the commission to take his place and oversee the process that would be acceptable to all stakeholders and will restore the confidence of the international community, the democratic process and institutions.

We have a responsibility to the millions of Nigerians who put their faith in us and our presidential candidates to defend our country from the forces that seek to tear us apart.

We are calling on President Mohammadu Buhari to stand by his promise to Nigerians to leave a legacy of free, fair, transparent and credible elections to the country .

President Buhari this is the time of great test of your integrity use your office to save Nigeria from this electoral mismanagement and save your legacy that seek to mar your democratic legacy

However in swift response, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has told the aggrieved political parties to seek redress in the court of law

It will be recalled that Senator Dino Melaye, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) agent, and other party agents, staged a walkout of the national collation centre in Abuja over INEC’s delay in uploading the presidential election results to the election results viewing portal (IRev).

Melaye on live Television accused MahmoodYakubu, INEC chairman of rigging the electoral process.

While responding in a statement signed by RotimiOyekanmi, chief press secretary to the INEC chairman, the commission said the call for Yakubu’sresignation is “misplaced”.

INEC also said the allegation by Melaye that the INEC chairman allocated scores to parties was unfounded and irresponsible.

“At the same time, contrary to the insinuation by both parties, results emanating from the States point to a free, fair and credible process,” the statement reads.

“There are laid down procedures for aggrieved parties or candidates to follow when they are dissatisfied about the outcome of an election. Such procedures do not include calling on the INEC Chairman to resign or for the election to be cancelled.

“To be sure, aggrieved parties are free to approach the courts to ventilate their concerns and wait for the matter to be resolved. Making inciting comments capable of causing violence or unrest is unacceptable.

“The 2023 General election processes are in their final stages of completion. It is only fair for aggrieved parties to allow the conclusion of the process and approach the courts with their evidences to pursue their cases.”

In the meantime, the All Progressives Congress and its presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on Tuesday, commenced a legal battle to prevent moves by opposition parties to halt the ongoing collation of Saturday’s presidential election results.

The candidate and his party filed a suit to restrain the Labour Party and the People’s Democratic Party preventing the continuous announcement and collation of results of the poll.

The suit was marked FHC/KN/CS/43/2023 and filed before the Federal High Court in Kano.

The Action Alliance and the Independent National Electoral Commission were joined as defendants while the APC vice presidential candidate, KashimShettima, was also listed as a plaintiff.

Our Correspondent report that the plaintiffs in a motion on notice filed alongside the originating summons asked the court to make the order restraining the defendants from stopping the collation and announcement of the results.

They argued that “damages will not adequately compensate for the injury that may be occasioned on the Plaintiffs if by the Defendants stop the collation of the result.”

In a related development, the ruling All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council (APC-PCC) has called on Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and his Labour Party counterpart Peter Obi to toemulate former President Goodluck Jonathan by conceding defeat.

APC-PCC also called on Atiku and Obi to immediately call Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the ruling party presidential and congratulate as Jonathan did to President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015 when it became obvious that he was winning.

Dele Alake, the Special Adviser, Media and Communications, APC-PC who made these calls at a press conference in Abuja the presidential election has already been won by the party’s candidate, according to the results declared at the collation centres in the state.

“In 2015, President Jonathan did not wait for INEC to finish collation before he called President Muhammadu Buhari and congratulated him in the true spirit of democracy and sportsmanship.

“We urge Atiku Abubakar and Obi to follow the same path of honour, instead of attempting to heat the polity via the reckless statements by surrogates,” he said.

Alake berated former President Olusegun Obasanjofor statement in which he was calling for the cancellation of the last Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly elections.

“His call was anchored on the unsubstantiated claims, rumours and allegations of fraud by opposition parties led by Peoples Democratic Party and Labour Party, who having seen that they have lost the election would rather want our hard won democracy to be truncated on the altar of their lies, the APC campaign spokesperson said.

He asked Nigerians to be aware of the gang up by the PDP and Labour Party, whose agents walked out of the National Collation Centre in Abuja on Monday, saying they were conspiring to truncate the country’s democracy.

“Today, they continued their conspiracy to truncate our 24 year democratic journey by raising unfounded allegations against INEC, casting aspersions on the whole electoral process, forgetting the process had handed them unexpected victories in some states.

“We have always suspected that Labour Party and PDP are the same, only divided by individual inordinate ambition. We want to remind them that election is a process like pregnancy. Like a pregnancy that has reached full term, it cannot be aborted. We are not in 1993 when June 12 was aborted by similar forces. It is too late to do so.

The APC-PCC wants to say emphatically that former President Obasanjo has no moral right to meddle in this election let alone calling for its cancellation because he is an interested party having publicly, on January 1 this year, endorsed the candidate of Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi.

“Although we stand by our position as stated yesterday not to jump the protocol governing the announcement of the election results and allow Independent National Electoral Commission to perform its constitutional duty, we want to tell the gathering of anti-democratic forces that we have the strength, the determination and the will to protect and defend this process and the soon-to-be-formally announced mandate freely given to our party and Presidential Candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and running mate, Senator KashimShettima,” he said.

Alake said the council was very well aware of the plan of the PDP and their Labour Party collaborators to heighten tension in the country and create general state of fear through their sponsored Television and Radio surrogates who continue to push false narratives about the general conduct of the election.

He said the council also aware of the coordinated assault aimed at discrediting the whole electoral process and the integrity of INEC by their so-called paid and partisan agents who wear the toga of Election Observers.

“We consider Obasanjo’s failed attempt to scuttle the process through his unsolicited advice to President Muhammadu Buhari to cancel the election as part of the grand orchestration of many evil plots to truncate democracy in Nigeria.

“Our position has been attested to by the international observers such as the Commonwealth, ECOWAS, European Union and African Union observer missions who adjudged the election as peaceful, free and fair whilst they identified areas of logistical improvements INEC should take into consideration in future elections.

“As you are well aware, the election was replete with drama. We saw the APC presidential candidate, party chairman and PCC director-general, losing their home states to Labour Party. Our DG also lost his bid to the Senate.

“We have also seen how Governor Samuel Ortom, a Labour Party backer lost his state of Benue to the APC. He also lost his bid to the Senate to the APC candidate. The Benue APC Tsunami was triggered by our popular governorship candidate, Father Hyacinth Alia and the party leader, George Akume. In Taraba, we have also witnessed how Governor Darius Ishaku lost his senatorial election.

“With all these hills and valleys and dramas that characterized the election, how can anyone claim the election was rigged or not transparent. We need to enjoin politicians to imbibe the democratic spirit. Elections are meant to test a candidate’s acceptance or popularity. In a National election, you must seek acceptance nationally. Ethnic champions can’t go far as democracy is a game of numbers. Wherever a candidate has the critical numbers, he wins. Wherever he is deficient, he loses. We have seen all these scenarios at play in the weekend election.

“We call on INEC to speed up the announcement of the result to quickly diffuse the current atmosphere of anxiety in the country, so that Nigerians can move on from this election circle with a greater hope of a prosperity which our candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu promised them during the electioneering campaign.

“We also call on Nigerians and our supporters across the country to be peaceful, excercise more patience and not be provoked by the antics of the agents of darkness lurking around, “Alake added

In another development, some protesters on Tuesday stormed the Presidential Collation Centre at the International Conference Centre in Abuja to demand for electronic transmission of results from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The protesters in their numbers, who said they were members of different political parties, were expressing dissatisfaction over the refusal to use electric transmission of results as promised by the electoral umpire before the election.

Speaking with newsmen during the protest which took place at Emeka Anyaoku street (about a kilometre to the coalition centre), one of the protesters, Ilemona Onoja, said their major demand is for the INEC Chairman to fulfil what he promised Nigerians several before the election, which is a transparent and open process.

According to Onoja, the process is not being followed. Instead what we are seeing is a situation where results that were written, that didn’t follow the process, are being announced as the results of the election contrary to the provisions of the Electoral Act, contrary to the INEC guidelines that they issued, and contrary to the promises of the INEC chairman.

“We came out on the 25th of February to cast our votes for our preferred candidates. We were told that a process was going to be followed. This process involves accreditation, voting and our ballots will be counted. After it has been counted, it will be transmitted directly to a central server. And that on the day of the election, at the national collation centre, that central server will be displayed and we will be able to follow the results.

“Now, all we are saying is, we don’t mind if our preferred candidate loses, just give us a transparent and open process. Let us be able to see the results. INEC promised us they will follow a certain procedure, we are asking them to follow it.”