Headlines
Pressure mounts on INEC Chairman to quit
By AYOOLA OLAOLUWA
The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, is under growing pressure to resign from his position over his commission’s poor handling of the February 25th Presidential and National Assembly elections.
Millions of Nigerian voters, it would be recalled, had trooped polling units on election day with high hopes of electing a new president and national lawmakers that will manage the affairs of the country for another four years.
When the dust raised by the feisty contest finally settled on March 1, the candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, was declared President-elect by the electoral umpire.
However, the poll was marred by several glitches, especially the breakdown of the multi-billion naira technology INEC had procured for the polls.
For instance, INEC engineers were unable to get the server running on time to enable the upload of results on the IReV portal from the 176,846 polling units.
As at 6.48pm on Saturday, March 11, precisely days after the election, 166,168 out of the 176,846 polling units results had been uploaded, with 10,678 left to be uploaded.
Also, there were multiple cases of officials thumb printing on ballot papers, snatching of ballot boxes and attacks on voters by political thugs sent to disrupt the election many critics described as the worst since the 2007 general elections.
Meanwhile, the bell is sounding loud on the embattled INEC chairman’s tenure in office, with calls for his sacking swelling each day.
Leading the calls for Mahmood’s resignation is the the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which accused him of complicity in the alleged manipulation and alteration of election results.
The National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Hon. Debo Ologunagba, while reiterating the demand for Mahmood’s resignation, said the party reviewed the widely-condemned infractions, a brazen violation of the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022 and alteration of election results by INEC and came to the conclusion that it was aimed at subverting the will of Nigerians on the February 25, 2023 elections.
“The PDP has also reviewed the latest scheme by INEC to reconfigure the BVAS devices, erase and destroy evidence of its manipulation of the Presidential election, deny Nigerians and political parties, especially our party and candidate access to relevant information required to prosecute our case at the Presidential Election Tribunal.
“From all indications, the INEC under Prof. Mahmood Yakubu was compromised to rig the election by brazenly violating the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022 as well as INEC’s Regulations, Guidelines and Manual issued for the election.
“It is also obvious that the commission under Prof. Mahmood Yakubu deliberately sabotaged the uploading and transmission of results directly from the polling units to give room for the criminal mutilation, alteration and switching of election results across the nation in favour of the APC as now abundantly exposed in the pictorial and video evidence of compromised results sheets in many parts of the country.
“Several pieces of evidence abound in states across the six geo-political zones of the country where winning figures lawfully scored by the PDP were switched in favour of the APC; where results sheet from polling centres won by the PDP were destroyed and replaced with fake results sheets in which APC was allocated unearned winning figures.
“This further explains why the INEC chairman rushed to announce and declare manipulated results that were not transmitted directly from the polling units to INEC’s server/website and ignored the objections and complaints raised during the collation of results in deliberate violation of the provisions of Section 64 (4) (a) and (b), 64 (6) (a)-(d), and 65 (1) (c) of the Electoral Act. 2022.
“For emphasis, while Section 64 (4) (a) and (b) expressly require the INEC chairman as the Chief Returning Officer to announce only results that were transmitted directly from the polling units, Sections 64 (6) (a)-(d) and 65 (1) (c) compel INEC, in the case of disputes, complaints or objections regarding a collated result or the result of an election from any polling unit, to take steps including the review of collation where they are made contrary to the provisions of the kaw, regulations, guidelines and manual issued for the election.
“By flagrantly violating these provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022 as well as INEC’s Regulations, Guidelines and Manual for the election, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu is not only culpable of serious electoral offence but also betrayed, thrashed and threw overboard the trust, confidence and hope Nigerians reposed in him and the electoral commission to deliver a free, fair and credible election in the country.
“The continuing stay of Prof. Mahmood Yakubu in office as chairman of INEC is therefore vexatious, injurious to the integrity of the electoral commission and an unpardonable assault to the credibility of our electoral process, the sensibility of Nigerians and the international community.
“Moreover, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu’s stay in office is capable of paving the way for the suppression, tampering and destruction of critical evidence required to further expose the infractions and violations by the commission at the Presidential Election Tribunal.
“This fear is evidenced by the desperation of INEC to reconfigure the BVAS devices to erase vital data contained therein.
“Consequently, the PDP demands that the Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, immediately step down from office, having abused the confidence and dashed the hope of millions of Nigerians as well as political parties and the International Community for a free, fair and credible election.
“Nigerians no longer have faith in Prof. Mahmood Yakubu’s capacity and integrity to manage a democracy institution as sensitive as INEC”, the PDP noted.
The party whose candidate came second in the disputed election insisted that “Prof. Mahmood Yakubu’s exit as chairman of INEC will be the first step towards sanitizing the electoral commission and restoring the confidence of Nigerians especially as the nation prepares for the rescheduled March 18, 2023, Governorship and State Assembly elections.
“The PDP notes the reports of various international bodies in disapproval of actions by the leadership of INEC in undermining democracy in the conduct of the February 25, 2023, Presidential and National Assembly elections.
“In that regard, the PDP calls on the international community to immediately impose sanctions including travel restrictions on the INEC chairman and other top officials of the Commission over their roles in compromising democracy in Nigeria”, the party demanded.
In the same vein, the Middle Belt Forum (MBF) also called for the resignation of the INEC boss before the next election on March 18.
The forum said in the event the INEC boss failed to heed its demands, he should be summarily dismissed by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The National President of the group, Dr Pogu Bitrus, who made the demand in a statement made available to Business Hallmark, commended the decision by the candidates of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar and the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi to approach the court for redress.
“We call on the INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, to toe the honourable path by resigning his position before the next election.
“His frittering away of tens of billions of naira on a technology that he did not intend to use makes him unfit to continue to maintain his position.
“In the event that Professor Yakubu failed to tender his resignation after this press release, President Muhammadu Buhari should summarily sack him.
“We pray that inaction by Mr President and the Presidency will not be seen as complicity in the subversion of the will of Nigerians in the electoral heist of 25th February 2023, a preposition we will prefer not to be correct.
“As political parties and candidates head to the Election Petition Tribunal, we strongly urge the judges to remain on the side of justice and ensure the wheel of justice is not compromised.
“We wish to advise that the courts should act at all times in a manner their decisions will not be seen as subverting the will of the people as many Nigerians point at the Uzodinma and Machina cases as decisions they cannot understand.
“Apart from the brazen refusal by INEC to comply with its own guidelines, the Electoral Act and the constitution, the conduct of the commission on election day was fraught with deliberately orchestrated logistical challenges, as shown by the late arrival of materials as well as INEC staff at polling units, harassment of voters in opposition strongholds to suppress votes, fraudulent thumb printing of ballot papers by INEC officials leading to the death of an INEC staff at Lugbe, in the FCT, among other infractions.
“We express great disappointment in the collation officers that took charge of 8,816 wards, 774 LGAs and the 37 states who, instead of strengthening the institution, only made a mockery of themselves”, the group lamented.
Also, a group of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) under the aegis of Democracy Protection Coalition (DPM), called for the resignation of the embattled INEC chairman, or in the alternative, his suspension by the commission’s board from conducting the governorship and state assembly elections.
The Convener and Executive Director PADDI Foundation, Mr. Eze Eluchie, while speaking in Lagos at the weekend, warned that if INEC continues to turn a deaf ear to the grievances of Nigerians, it could result in voter apathy in future electoral processes.
“In view of his lack of remorse in the face of deliberate flagrant nonconformity with the Electoral Act and INEC’s Regulations for Elections regarding the BVAS machines; deliberate falsehoods and lies to Nigerians regarding the sanctity of the electoral process; and audacious display of impudence against Nigerians and Nigeria; the INEC Chairman, Prof. Yakubu, has lost the confidence of Nigerians and civil society regarding his ability to continue as an impartial umpire in the electoral process.
“Considering that people’s confidence, trust and belief in the electoral system and electoral umpire is an integral component of elections, and that such confidence, trust and belief in INEC and its current chairman, having been irrevocably eroded, Yakubu, should immediately, resign his position as chairman of INEC.
“To avoid further tainting the sanctity and integrity of the Governorship and House of Assembly elections, Yakubu should totally forthwith recuse himself from participating in any manner whatsoever, in the processes and administration of the forthcoming gubernatorial and state Houses of Assembly elections.
“In the events of Yakubu’s failure to resign from office of his own accord, efforts should be harnessed by the INEC board to, in a manner similar to how the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner for Sokoto State was suspended, likewise suspend Yakubu from office until further notice, by which time the manipulations and untoward actions of the said Mr. Yakubu would have been addressed and rectified.
“Alternatively, the people of Nigeria in whom ultimately power resides, should rise and effectively demand the exit from office of this INEC chairman who has displayed gross incompetence, lack of capacity and a penchant to be deceptive and dubious in the discharge of the highly sensitive functions”, the coalition demanded.
