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The Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room has alleged a whopping 513,214 discrepancy in the number of accredited voters and ballots cast in 27 states during the presidential election that held last weekend.
In its fourth interim report, issued by the Executive Director of Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC), Clement Nwankwo, on the collation and announcement of the poll results, the civil society organizations said the tallies announced by some state returning officers were disturbing, raising fundamental issues of credibility over the whole exercise.
According to the CSOs, the number of factual discrepancies was 513,214 across 27 states, including Nasarawa, Kogi, Adamawa, Edo and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). The situation room had called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to “transparently address” these contentious issues before the completion of result tabulation, but INEC went ahead and declared the incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari winner of the poll.
Against the backdrop that there were simultaneous accreditation and voting, the Consortium noted that some of the figures on accredited voters and total votes cast showed wide discrepancies. The findings also indicated a lack of clarity in the rationale for cancellation of 1,084,358 voided votes across 1175 polling units in 18 states. “The pattern of this cancellation requires some close interrogation to show fairness and objectivity,” the report added.
The reasons provided for the cancelled votes, the groups said, included over-voting, card reader malfunctioning and violence. They called on the electoral body to provide clarification on compliance with its guidelines regarding cancellation of elections.
Nwankwo stated that the groups deployed observers in all 8,809 electoral wards nationwide and received reports of monitors being restricted from several ward collation centres. On claims of duress by INEC staff, the CSOs observed that the officials and ad hoc workers had alleged harassment and intimidation in the course of the collation process and undue pressure during announcement of results.
The election monitoring unit noted that INEC failed to publicly acknowledge the occurrences and take measures to safeguard its personnel. While urging Nigerians to remain peaceful, the organizations called on aggrieved political parties and candidates to seek redress through legal channels.
However, a coalition of domestic observers; the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Nigeria Labor Congress (NLC), and a former president of the Nigerian Bar Association, Olisa Agbakoba, have urged the PDP candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and other contenders to accept the outcome of the contest in good faith. The observers, through their spokesperson, Tunde Bafunsho, urged President Buhari to be magnanimous in victory.
In a related development, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) yesterday faulted INEC over conduct of the Presidential and National Assembly elections in which President Buhari was declared winner. The NBA also faulted the logistics preparations of led INEC, accusing the commission’s officials of aiding and abetting politicians to rig the elections.
In its interim report signed by Chairman, Elections Working Group (EWG), Afam Osigwe, the NBA did not only indict INEC over challenges Nigerians faced, but insisted that some INEC staff showed partisanship in the elections. The NBA-EWG, however, noted that despite postponement of the polls by one week, the exercise recorded some noticeable but avoidable lapses. It stated that its members reported that polls did not commence at 8am in most polling units nationwide. This, according to it, was a drawback, which manifested in the South-South, Southeast, Southwest and North Central zones of the country, among several other lapses.
In another development, the APC candidate for Ikom/Boki Federal Constituency of Cross River, Victor Abang, has rejected INEC’s result declaring the PDP candidate, Chris Agibe, as winner. INEC had declared Agibe winner of the election with 38,456 votes against 29,977 votes for Abang.
His rejection was made known in a statement issued yesterday in Calabar by Director General of Abang’s Reality Campaign Network, Prince Eka Williams. “The attention of the Reality Campaign Network of Sir Victor Abang has been drawn to a purported announcement of winner for the Ikom/Boki Federal Constituency election by INEC. This is in spite of mass irregularities and sharp practices, which characterised the election. The announcement was done in contravention of the electoral act and guidelines for the election,” the statement reads.
Meanwhile, the Bayelsa State government has rejected votes allocated to the Buhari and other APC candidates, especially in Nembe Bassambiri and Southern Ijaw local government areas of the state to APC. Governor Seriake Dickson said in a statement issued by his Special Adviser, Media Relations, Fidelis Soriwei that elections did not hold in Nembe Bassambiri and Constituency 4 of Southern Ijaw.
