From Okwe Obi, Abuja
Election observer group, Connected Development (CODE), has lambasted the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), in the conduct of the presidential election, noting that slow upload of results and declaration process in some states across the country impeded the exercise.
Chief Executive Officer of CODE, Hamzat Lawal, at a press conference, claimed he got the information from the organisation’s 20,000 community-driven observers on the ground.
He claimed that these insidious acts threatened the credibility of the election, and would make it possible for many people to accept the results.
Lawal said, “Connected Development and its partners are at this moment calling the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) 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.
“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.
“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.”
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