Three opposition events name for cancellation of the election, because the ruling get together candidate is within the lead, with outcomes from 19 of 36 states introduced.
Abuja, Nigeria – Three of Nigeria’s opposition events have referred to as for the cancellation of the February 25 presidential and parliamentary elections, because the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has firmly taken the lead within the ongoing collation course of.
Provisional outcomes introduced by the Unbiased Nationwide Electoral Fee (INEC) from 19 of Nigeria’s 36 states put the APC’s presidential candidate Bola Tinubu within the lead, forward of Atiku Abubakar of the Folks’s Democratic Social gathering (PDP), Peter Obi the Labor Social gathering (LP) and Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Folks’s Social gathering (NNPP).
On Wednesday, the LP, PDP and the African Democratic Congress referred to as for brand spanking new polls throughout a joint information convention held within the capital, Abuja, saying the look forward to the announcement of the ultimate consequence could be “like ready to deal with a useless physique”.
“We monitored with dismay the travesty to democracy exhibited on the collation heart of INEC. It’s, to say the least, a rape on democracy,” mentioned Julius Abure, the LP chairman, alleging widespread manipulation.
“We’re subsequently constrained to state that INEC compromised the integrity of the election even earlier than collation started … We now have subsequently arrived on the conclusion that the election has been irretrievably compromised.”
The events additionally referred to as for INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu to step down from his place and get replaced by “a reputable individual from exterior the fee”.
“Election outcomes are nonetheless being manipulated in authorities homes,” Abure alleged. “If you happen to ship your baby to highschool and it fails exams, they repeat the category. INEC has failed,” he mentioned. “The outcomes introduced by INEC thus far present monumental disparities between precise outcomes reported by our get together brokers and certainly tens of millions of Nigerians on election day.”
“What now we have seen is vote allocation and never collation,” added Dino Melaye, a PDP politician and former senator who moderated the information convention.
Since Saturday’s election, observers, voters and civil society leaders have complained about logistical challenges within the conduct of the polls and the gradual tempo of importing consequence sheets from polling models to a brand new digital portal designed to enhance electoral transparency.
That has allowed room for the manipulation of outcomes, the critics say, with out offering any particular names thus far.
“Collation in Nigeria is a black gap – nothing that comes out is to be trusted with no technique of verification,” Ayisha Osori, former government director of the Open Society Initiative for West Africa, informed Al Jazeera. “As a low-trust society, we welcomed IReV [the results viewing portal] as a method of verifying our polling unit outcomes. With out this transparency, outcomes written by a number of males change into troublesome to simply accept.”
The APC has dismissed the opposition’s allegations, urging the INEC to announce the consequence rapidly to defuse the state of affairs.
In the meantime, former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Monday wrote an open letter addressed to outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari, claiming that INEC officers had been compromised and the outcomes doctored.
He urged Buhari to “let all elections that don’t cross the credibility and transparency check be cancelled”.
“Let me enchantment to the Chairman of INEC, if his fingers are clear, to save lots of Nigeria from the looming hazard and catastrophe which is simply ready to occur,” Obasanjo added.
The opposition additionally spoke of the necessity for the president to cancel the disputed elections, even because the nation waits for outcomes to be introduced and there are mounting considerations that there could possibly be post-electoral violence.
“We do not need Nigerians to take legislation into their fingers, and we representatives have the accountability to take this motion,” mentioned former Nigerian Senate President Iyorchia Ayu, the PDP’s chairman.
