Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, has asked the National Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Mahmood Yakubu to instruct the Collation Officers for Saturday’s election to upload the results from the Polling Units to the INEC server immediately.
In a statement Atiku, spokesman, Mr. Paul Ibe, quotes his principal as saying that this has become necessary to checkmate some governors who are trying to compromise the results at the local government collation level.
“It will be a disservice to Nigerians and a negation to democracy for anyone to subvert the will of the people as freely expressed in their votes of yesterday,” Atiku said.
He called on Nigerians to be calm but vigilant to ensure that anti-democratic elements who are masquerading as progressives do not steal their mandate.
Meanwhile, the Director-General of the Labour Party (LP), Balogun Akin Osuntokun, has appealed to INEC should not throw Nigeria into crisis.
His words, “First, we are grateful to God that Nigerian election has not become the bloodshed that many enemies of our dear country had predicted. We thank Nigerian people that in spite of the glaring failures of INEC and the deliberate criminality of status quo politicians they came out and stayed throughout and peacefully cast their votes. We are grateful to young Nigerians for their faith in Nigeria and the vision of greatness and justice we have offered them.
He noted that many polling units in Rivers State, Imo state, Delta state, and Lagos state did not vote because INEC did not send any voting materials and officials to these places.
“In the case of Unit 16, Ward 53 at Ogbogoro Secondary in Obio-Akpo LGA with more than 700 voters who are strong Labour Party supporters. This selective disenfranchisement violates the constitutional rights of Nigeria and a deliberate plan to deny Labour Party of deserved sweeping victory at the polls.
“At this point we want to alert Nigerians that the rest lies on INEC. INEC’s performance in this election has been disgraceful. We are sad that there is unnecessary delay in transmitting results from across the country.
“We are alerting INEC that Nigerian youths are impatient and would not accept any deliberate failure to transmit the real results. Nigerian people will not accept any later transmission of fake results.
“We have received intelligence of effort being made in Imo State, Rivers State, Lagos State, and several other states to compromise the results.
“Anyone who pays attention to the mood of Nigerian people know that the people – north, south, east and west – are tired. They want a better future for their people. They want Nigeria that works for all citizens and they will resist any conspiracy by INEC and the status quo politicians to overthrow their sovereign will.
“We call on INEC to quickly upload the results of the pooling units. INEC leadership should resist the attempt by Governors and leading politicians in these states to subvert the will of the people. We call on Nigerian to be vigilant and note that INEC is the one now pushing the country to the precipices of violence by its deliberate inefficiency and failures to implement the provisions of the electoral law.”
