Politics

CSO Alleges Plot To Compromise Election Results

Published

1 year ago

February 27, 2023

A human rights organization under the aegis of Connected Development on Sunday alleged that there were plans by those it described electoral criminals to rig the general election by compromising the results.

The Chief Executive Officer of CODE, Hamzat Lawal, who raised the alarm, said he got the information from the organisation’s 20,000 community-driven observers on the ground.

Lawal alleged that the rigging technique involved slow uploading of results on the INEC result portal, relocation of state collation centres without adequate information to stakeholders, outright denial of accredited observers access to new locations as well as issues of elections not holding in some local government areas but results being collated amongst others.

According to him, the criminal acts threaten the credibility of this election, and would make it possible for many people to accept the results to be announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

He said, “Connected Development and its partners are at this moment calling the Independent National Electoral Commission to indeed be independent and serve the people the constitution has mandated it to serve.

“With 20,000 community-driven observers on the ground, CODE and its partners, using our Electoral Intelligence tool, Uzabe have noticed a worrisome trend across the nation that points to the gaps and unpreparedness within the structure of the electoral process which is threatening the credibility of this election.

“We have several reports indicating that States like Ekiti, Cross River, Imo, and Rivers State have had their Local Government Area (LGA) collation centers relocated without adequate information to stakeholders.

“In Ekiti especially, we have it on good authority that all LGA collation centres were relocated, and in most cases, accredited observers were outrightly denied access and new locations were shrouded in secrecy.

“We have seen issues of elections not holding in some local government areas and results are being collated.

“This happened in Oru East, Imo State, where our observers confirmed that no election was held and in fact, some voters were asked to vote in a private residential building of a party chieftain, which is clearly against INEC guidelines and the electoral act. Yet we have results from that LGA. This is an indictment on INEC and all that our constitution stands for.

“There is still a growing number of reports that several polling units opened polls very late and ended the process of voting while voters were still in the queue, citing nightfall as the reason, thereby disenfranchising thousands of voters across various polling units.

“The INEC 2023 election guidelines state that voting till the last person on the queue votes but this was clearly not adhered to.

“We also noted that in many polling stations, BVAS were reported to be malfunctioning and observers even recorded a shortage of necessary materials.

“We are very concerned about the slow upload of results on the INEC result portal. At this point, the result portal has only 40,000 polling units results.

“This is more disturbing as we are aware that INEC created over 50,000 new polling units with less than 100 registered voters in each of them, and elections was since concluded in all these polling units at 2:30pm yesterday and one would expect that by midnight of yesterday, all this polling units results should have been uploaded.

“This expectation is coming from the experience we observed in the Ekiti and Osun Gubernatorial elections, where we witnessed over 95 percent of the results uploaded before midnight on election day.

“Nigerians deserve efficiency, they deserve fairness, with people denying themselves sleep and keeping wake under the rain, Nigerians deserve better from public institutions.

“Therefore we are calling on INEC to address these issues immediately. We are also calling on the Nigerian police as the lead agency on election security to monitor.

“Joint security forces deployed for this election have done well and are already stretched.

“Lack of adequate information, access to independent observers and strict adherence to the electoral act of 2022 and the INEC’s guidelines will cause apprehension, a trust deficit that might lead to civil unrest and rejection of the overall outcome, and should be addressed immediately by the INEC chairman.”

Politics

Atiku Hints On Supporting Obi For 2027 Presidential Race

Published

7 hours ago

May 18, 2024

Editor

The 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, has said that if in 2027, the party decides that it is the South-East’s turn and selects Peter Obi as its candidate, he will readily offer his support.

“I have said repeatedly and I even said it before the 2023 general elections that if the PDP decides to zone the presidential ticket to the South or South-East specifically, I won’t contest it. As long as it’s the decision of the party, I will abide by it. But I contested the 2023 presidential ticket because it was thrown open to all members of the party.

“If the party decides that it’s the turn of the South-East and Peter Obi is chosen, I won’t hesitate to support him,” Atiku declared in a recent interview with BBC Hausa Service.

He added that a merger between the PDP and Labour Party is possible.

Atiku added that members of the party would decide his fate in the 2027 general elections.

The former Vice President mentioned that his recent meeting with Obi might indicate a possible alliance leading up to the 2027 general elections.

Responding to questions about the meeting with Obi, Atiku said, “It’s just a normal friendly meeting that we often have, particularly among us in the opposition parties. Such meetings are healthy for Nigeria’s democracy and in the country’s interest.”

On whether this will bring about a merger, he said, “Yes, it’s very much possible. We can merge to achieve a common goal. So, it’s possible, and nothing can stop it if we wish to achieve that.”

The former Vice President, who denied that the choice of presidential candidate might frustrate the merger discussion, said, “That’s not true. That challenge will not arise. I can tell you that the choice of who will fly the flag of the party won’t be an issue.”

On why he’s still in active politics, Atiku said, “Yes, we can’t keep quiet and watch things go wrong. People are suffering and we are committed to making Nigeria a better place.

“It means you are not tired of politics of Nigeria? Not at all. I am still in active politics in Nigeria, at least, as long as God permits.

“My age doesn’t stop the young ones from testing their fate. Everybody, irrespective of age, is allowed to aspire to be anybody in the society, politically or otherwise.”

Regarding his 2027 Presidential ambition, the former Vice President said “That would depend on the decision of my party. I can’t make any categorical statement on that. It’s the duty of the party to decide on the way to go in the next election.

“Until that time comes. Let’s just wait and see how it will turn out.

“It must not be interpreted like that. I must not be eyeing elections to have meetings with political friends and associates. Currently, we are practising democracy in this country which we fought for with our blood.”

Last week, Obi held a private meeting with Atiku and some other PDP leaders in Abuja.

Obi also met separately with former Jigawa State Governor Sule Lamido and former Senate President Bukola Saraki, sparking speculation about a possible coalition for the 2027 general elections.

Obi was a PDP member until 2022, when he left to pursue his presidential ambitions with the Labour Party.

He finished third behind Atiku in the February 23 presidential election, which was won by Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress.

Atiku blamed Obi’s departure from the PDP for his loss to Tinubu.

Analysts argued that Atiku’s 6,984,520 votes combined with Obi’s 6,101,533 votes could have secured a win against Tinubu, who received 8,794,726 votes.

Monday’s meeting marked the first public interaction between Obi and Atiku since the election.

Social media and online platforms were flooded with viral photos of Obi’s meetings with the three PDP figures on Monday.

In 2019, Atiku and Obi ran together on the PDP ticket but were defeated by former President Muhammadu Buhari of the APC.

However, due to internal conflicts, Obi, who was Atiku’s running mate in 2019, left the PDP and ran as the Labour Party’s candidate in the 2023 presidential election.

Politics

JUST IN: Ex-PDP Deputy National Chair, Oyedokun Defects To APC

Published

2 days ago

May 16, 2024

Editor

A former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Shuaib Oyedokun, has resigned his membership of the party and announced defection to the All Progressives Congress.

Oyedokun, a notable personality within the political circle in Osun State and beyond, said he decided to dump the PDP after consultation with his loyalists.

He said he would be joining APC, where his experience, efforts, and leadership roles would be valued and appreciated.

His resignation letter addressed to the National Chairman of the PDP through the ward, local government and state chairmen of the party obtained late Thursday further read, “As a functional member and leader of PDP (Ward 13, Jagun/ Osi-Bale Ode, Odo-Otin South Local Government, Osun State,) whose high electoral productivity and value have been credibly and positively acknowledged in my ward, across the local council, state and country-wide for the enhancement of the fortune of the PDP, I have the honour (though with pain) in announcing the renunciation of my membership of the party on principle, having observed that the ideals of we, founding members, had been sorely contaminated.

“In taking this step which is not even without due consultation with my teaming loyalists in the PDP, I have consequently decided to shift my allegiance to the All Progressives Congress (APC) where I believe my experience, efforts and leadership roles would be valued and appreciated.”

Oyedokun’s defection to the APC is coming at the time the aspirant he supported during the 2022 Osun governorship primary of PDP, Mr Dotun Babayemi is also moving to the national ruling party.

Osun APC said on Wednesday that Babayemi and his supporters would be dumping PDP and joining the party at a rally scheduled to be held in Osogbo on Friday.
PUNCH

Politics

Poll: APC Has No Sellable Candidate, Nothing To Campaign On – Edo Govt

Published

5 days ago

May 13, 2024

Editor

The Edo State Government claimed on Monday that the All Progressives Congress, APC, has no credible candidate for the September 21 governorship election.

This was an assertion made by the Edo State Commissioner for Communication and Orientation, Chris Nehikhare, at a press conference in Benin City.

Nehikhare also alleged that the party is using lies and propaganda as its campaign strategy.

According to him: “The only APC strategy for the governorship election is to resort to lies and propaganda. When a party takes lies and propaganda as an election strategy, it means it has nothing to offer the people. The party lacks people with character, capacity, and intellect.”

The commissioner who took journalists through a screened shot WhatsApp chat said: “What we have here is the official APC WhatsApp platform, their own people screenshot their discussion. One of them who has a conscience asks, is this the only thing we have?”

Nehikhare, who said APC is ashamed to campaign for its candidate, noted that, as of today, nobody had heard of what the party has for the state.

“All we heard is how they are going to help their paymaster, lies and propaganda that will not help the state,” he added.

He opined that lies and propaganda are not strategies the opposition party, like APC, can use to win the September 21 governorship election.

The commissioner, who warned against misinformation and fake news ahead of the governorship election, urged media practitioners to be neutral in matters concerning lies and propaganda.

He, however, noted that Governor Godwin Obaseki’s administration has a lot of achievements to market and sell its candidate for the election.