Mr. Laolu Akande, who is the media aide to the immediate past Vice President of Nigeria, Yemi Osinbajo, has claimed that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) failing to electronically transmit the results of the 2023 presidential and National Assembly elections has broken the trust of Nigerians.
Akande made this known on Friday while answering questions on Channels Television’s ‘Politics Today’ programme which was monitored by Africa Today News, New York.
According to Akande, INEC failed to fulfill its promise to upload polling unit results on their Result Viewing Portal.
‘It is important to establish something we cannot basically run away from. INEC came out of this election as a damaged goods.
‘There is no doubt about that. INEC itself set up a standard. INEC determined the guidelines. INEC committed to the people of Nigeria that this is how we are going to declare the result of this election.’
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‘In fact, the Chairman of INEC went abroad and said, ‘What we are going to do is that these results, when we get it, we will put it on IReV in real-time’,’ Akande said.
Akande’s comments came after the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal (PEPT) upheld the election of President Bola Tinubu.
The Justice Haruna Tsammani-led panel ruled that the sole technological requirement mandated for use by the INEC during elections is the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS).
In another report, Mr. Peter Obi who is the Candidate of the Labour Party, has vowed to appeal the judgement of the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC), that upheld the election of President Bola Tinubu.
Obi, whose petition was dismissed by the court, warned that if care was not taken, sound electoral jurisprudence will disappear in the country.
He stressed that litigants that are dissatisfied with the outcome of an election, may resort to self help, if they continue to find it very difficult to establish their case owing to obstacles from government institutions like the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).