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Election: INEC Suspends Abia State REC

The Independent National Electoral Commission INEC has suspended Ike Uzochukwu, its Resident Electoral Commissioner REC in Abia State.

Abia State was one of the states where the February 25 Presidential and National Assembly elections did not commence as scheduled, following a logistical failure.

Vanguard reports that following the suspension, INEC has consequently directed its Administrative Secretary in the state, Clement Ohia to immediately assume office and ensure the smooth conduct of this Saturday’s Governorship and State Assembly election.

The commission had on March 6 suspended its Resident Electoral Commissioner REC in Sokoto State, Dr. Nura Ali, and directed its Administrative Secretary in the state, Hauwa Aliyu Kangiwa, to take over its affairs.

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BVAS Configuration: INEC Imputing Wrong Figures – Dino Melaye Raises Alarm

Senator Dino Melaye of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP has made a new allegation against the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
He accused INEC, of imputing wrong figures while transferring results to the backend server.
Melaye, a spokesperson to the presidential candidate of the PDP in the just concluded February 25 election, Atiku Abubakar, disclosed this in a post via his Twitter handle on Monday.
He said his party would expose any wrong imputation and change in figures by the commission as it transfers election results to the backend server.
Recall that the Electoral Commission recently obtained order from the Court to allow it reconfigure the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, for the March 18 gubernatorial election.
However, the former lawmaker said they would shock INEC and its ICT department.
 
“INEC is doing the wrong thing, wrong imputation going on. We will expose any wrong imputation and figures changing as upload and backend transfer is going on. We will shock INEC and the ICT department. Jail loading for many,” he tweeted.
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INEC Denies Refusing Aggrieved Political Parties Access To Election Materials

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has dismissed allegations that it disobeyed the Appeal Court order to allow aggrieved political parties to inspect election materials.

INEC National Commissioner for Information and Voter Education, Festus Okoye, made the clarification, when he appeared as a guest on Arise TV on Sunday.

Okoye advised lawyers of the aggrieved parties, to channel their request appropriately, so that, “the issues can be handled expeditiously.”

He added that INEC, at the national level, does not conduct elections, but rather elections are conducted at the state and local government level.

The INEC Commissioner also stated that the commission will direct the parties to the appropriate place where they will find the materials they want.

He said, “The commission will not deliberately or flagrantly disobey the order of a properly constituted court of law, and in this case, the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal sitting at the Court of Appeal.

“I think that what the parties involved in this election should do, is to send lawyers who understand the trajectory of the electoral process and request for some of these materials.

“If you are requesting to scan ballot papers used during the election, ballot papers are not in the headquarters of INEC.

“Some of these ballot papers are still in our local government offices and so the proper place to scan them will be at our local government offices.”

Okoye said INEC is only resetting the BVAS, to recognize the new date for the forthcoming election.

He explained that the BVAS will not allow itself to reconfigure until all the data in it has been uploaded to the commission’s server.

Okoye ruled out the possibility of INEC allowing individuals to witness the reconfiguring of the BVAS, saying the device contains sensitive information of biometrics of other individuals.

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Labour Party Threatens To Occupy INEC Offices Nationwide For ‘Disobeying’ Tribunal’s Directive To Release BVAS Machines For Inspection

The Labour Party has issued a new threat to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

The party threatened that it will call on its members to occupy offices of INEC nationwide for allegedly frustrating its petition against the outcome of the 2023 presidential election.

The party’s Presidential Campaign Council chief spokesman, Tanko Yunusa, disclosed this in a statement.

According to Yunusa, INEC refused to allow its lawyers and agents inspect the Bimodal Voter Authentication System (BVAS) machines alongside other electoral materials.

He added that the electoral body has decided which court orders to obey and which to disregard.

The spokesman wondered why INEC disobeyed the order of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal directing the electoral umpire to grant the party and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, access to the certified true copies of materials used in the conduct of the poll.

The statement read, “The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) with greatest impunity have refused, neglected and failed to obey the Order of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja made on the 03rd day of March 2023, directing it to grant the Labour Party and its presidential candidate H.E. Peter Gregory Obi leave to apply and receive from INEC, certified true copies of materials used in the presidential election held on 25th February 2023.

“It will be recalled that the aforesaid Order of the presidential election petition tribunal was duly served on INEC on the 3rd of March 2023 despite the fact that they were present and represented at the tribunal when the Order was made.

“Not minding the service of the said Order on INEC, and a reminder letter dated the 6th day of March 2023 and delivered same date at the INEC Headquarters Abuja, the electoral umpire has continued to ignore and or disobey the valid Order of such magnitude till NOW.

“It should be noted that in a democracy like ours, rule of law must triumph not only in our legal system but also in our body polity as a whole. Parties to a litigation like in the instant case must accept and obey every order of court in good faith and no party should be seen to employ self-help to disparage or disrespect an order of court which if not checked and curtailed could possibly undermine our democracy, rule of law and constitutionalism.

“The action of INEC under reference also constitutes for all intent and purposes, an act of judicial insubordination and willful refusal to comply to the order of court. As we speak INEC has chosen to obey the court order given to it to reconfigure the BVAS machine, which they doing right now and ignoring the order granted to us to inspect electoral materials.

“We therefore call on the general public to note the level of lawlessness and brazen disobedience to a lawful order of a court by an important statutory agency such as INEC, and which is a well calculated attempt to undermine and frustrate the presentation of the Petition by the Labour Party and its Presidential candidate before the tribunal in good time.

“We therefore want to state that we will not fail to call our supporters to march to INEC offices nationwide in a non-violent protest which is allowed by law. This is to curtail the flagrant disobedience to court orders by INEC.”

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Confidence In INEC Now At An All Time Low – Former INEC Director

Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi, a former INEC Director, Voter Education and Publicity, has stated that Nigerians have little or no trust in the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Some Nigerians had criticised the conduct of the February 25 presidential and National Assembly elections as below the expectations of citizens and stakeholders at home and abroad.

“You could not envisage a situation with the tension of the country. With the uncertainty and all that has happened in the last 10, 12 day, I don’t think INEC could afford doing any wrong again,” Osaze-Uzzi, said on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Thursday, March 9.

“Things went awry last time around and confidence, I think, is at an all-time low. Some people may begin to get over it, but I think the vast majority of Nigerians are satisfied.”

“Trust is a fragile thing,” Osaze-Uzzi stated.

“INEC conducted elections in 1998, 1999 – people just wanted to get rid of the military, it wasn’t perfect but it was acceptable. In 2003, people were not happy. 2007 was the epoch of it all. Trust was next to zero,” he said.

Osaze-Uzzi however added that with the changes in personnel and reforms brought into place, trust began to build up, leading up to 2022.

“By the time you brought more technology, by the time you conducted Osun, Edo, Ekiti, Ondo, and then they saw the way technology improved the process, Osun was picture-perfect. People [said], ‘They could really do this.’

“Expectations were now high and people were ready to forgive the sins of the past. I think at that time, INEC became one of the most trusted public institutions,” he said.

“There was a call to be made: Do you delay things and ensure you follow the process to the letter, even if it means delaying this thing for a week or whatever period of time?

“Or do you save time, save tension, just go ahead and bypass some of the processes laid down in your regulations? I think it took the former. This time around, I think process triumphed over timing,” he said.

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Group Sues INEC For Not Complying With Electoral Act

A group of Nigerians led by Govindex Leadership, Empowerment and Development Foundation have sued the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for not complying with Section 160(1) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended and Sections 60(5) and 148 of the Electoral Act 2022.

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2023 Elections

INEC Postpones Governorship And State Assembly Elections To March 18

The governorship and state assembly polls have been postponed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The elections, initially scheduled to hold on March 11, has been postponed to March 18, 2023.

The postponement is due to the inability of the commission to promptly commence reconfiguration of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines utilized during the February 25 presidential election to enable their use in the state elections.

INEC was earlier restrained from tampering with the information embedded in the BVAS machines until due inspection was conducted and Certified True Copies (CTC) issued to candidates who are challenging the outcome of the presidential election.

The commission had convinced the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal to vary its order granting Peter Obi of the Labour Party and PDP’s Atiku Abubakar permission to inspect the election materials on the premise that it had to reconfigure the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) for the conduction of the polls this Saturday.

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2023 Elections

Election Result: Allow Cameras At Hearing – Joe Keshi Charges Supreme Court

A retired Nigerian ambassador, Joe Keshi, has made an appeal to the Supreme Court.

He appealed to the Supreme Court to allow cameras into the court for the first time when the hearing for the Presidential election commences.

The Labour Party, LP; the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP; and the New Nigerian Peoples Party, NNPP; have all vowed to approach the court following the outcome of February 25 Presidential and National Assembly elections.

Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, APC, was declared winner of the election amid outcry of rigging, suppression and manipulation of votes by politicians across the country.

Keshi, who had been ambassador to many countries, including Togo, Ethiopia, Belgium, the Netherlands, Namibia, Sierra Leone and the United States, said the Supreme Court should endeavour to make the process transparent this time.

“The Supreme Court should do the right thing and for the Supreme Court to do the right thing, for their own sake,” he said on Arise Television’s The Morning Show.

“For goodness sake, let them allow cameras into the court for the first time so that Nigerian people could follow the process so that at the end of the day whatever judgement they gave, Nigerians would be satisfied that they followed their process and followed all the evidence.

“I’m appealing to the judges to allow cameras into the court for the first time to witness so that Nigerians can listen to the evidence and be convinced that the judges are credible as we want them to be.”

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INEC’s Certificate of Return is like ‘World Cup’ trophy to me — Tinubu

During a visit to the palace of Rilwan Akinolu, the Oba of Lagos, Nigeria’s President-Elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, described the certificate of return presented to him by INEC as a “World Cup” trophy.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had announced Tinubu, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as the winner of the presidential election held on February 25, with a total of 8,794,726 votes, while his closest rivals, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP), secured 6,984,520 and 6,101,533 votes, respectively.

Tinubu promised the monarchies that he would not let Nigerians down.

“To all the monarchies seated, may God provide you with strong health for you. God will not allow our country to perish. We will not be used as a tool to disgr@ce you. I will not let you down,” he said. “The journey that we embarked upon and we have returned home with a certificate — it is like our own World Cup — and I thank you all for the effort,” Tinubu stated.

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2023 Elections

IReV: INEC Uploads 92% Of Election Results

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has now uploaded 161,624 results from 176, 846 polling units, eight days after the presidential and national assembly polls.

The figure represents 92 per cent of results from all the polling units.

As of the time of filing this report, the electronic transmission of results was still ongoing.

Nigerians expected that the election results would be uploaded on election day as promised by the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu.

However, INEC came under fire for its failure to upload results to its viewing portal which led to the walkout of some party agents on Monday at the National Collation Centre.

Checks on Sunday revealed that the results of all the polling units were yet to be uploaded on the INEC website.

According to the Commission, BolaTinubu, the candidate for the ruling All Progressives Congress, won 8.8 million votes, while main opposition candidates Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi had 6.9 million and 6.1 million, respectively.