By Gideon Njoku

The Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council, PCC, Director General, says that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has disgraced Nigeria.

Osuntokun, after a hard look at the performance of INEC on Saturday, February, 25, 2023, in the Presidential and National Assembly elections, dismissed it as disgraceful.

Not a few Nigerians agree that INEC and Security Agencies performed poorly. In a number of places, both INEC Officials and election materials arrived late. There were shortages of the materials, and deliberate disappearance of others. It was obvious, in some areas, that INEC connived with politicians to suppress votes.

On the part of Security Agents, they watched while thugs and violence held sway. Guns boomed. They snatched ballot boxes, openly intimidated voters, sending them away, especially, in Lagos and Rivers States, and beating up voters. In some places, the Police helped in manipulating the votes. In one Polling Unit, at least, three Police Officers were caught thump printing ballot papers. Youths pounced on them.

In a statement on Sunday, the LP DG warned INEC not to plunge the nation into an avoidable crisis.

He expressed LP’s displeasure at the conduct of INEC officials in most parts of Lagos, Imo, Rivers and Delta states, where he said a quite a number of LP  members were stopped from voting.

He said: “INEC should not throw Nigeria into crisis. 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.

“We note 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.

“There is the case of Unit 16, Ward 53 at Ogbogoro Secondary School in Obio-Akpo LGA with more than 700 voters who are strong Labour Party supporters.

“This selective disenfranchisement violates the constitutional rights of Nigerians 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.

“INEC is the one now pushing the country to the precipice of violence by its deliberate inefficiency and failures to implement the provisions of the electoral law.”

The Obi-Datti Media Office has raised the alarm over the underhand moves to manipulate the Presidential Election results across the country with the non-uploading of much of the presidential election results to the INEC server at the polling stations.

In a statement signed by its Head, Diran Onifade, the Team described the situation as curious, unacceptable, and smacks of fraud that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BIVAS) device could nobly transmit the Senate and House of Representatives results, but cannot do that of the Presidential election.

It said: “The Obi-Datti Media Office finds it curious that the BVAS would choose which results to upload and which not to upload. Certainly, this smacks of a serious fraud aimed to torpedo the wishes of the Nigerian electorate who have already decided that things can no longer continue to go wrong in Nigeria, using the ballot box to do so.

“The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), should be held responsible for this flagrant anomaly that defies logic, as the Obi-Datti Media Office finds what is developing as a recipe to manipulate the process and truncate the electoral wishes of the Nigerian masses.

“We also find unbecoming, the reported interference of the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike. We call on all relevant bodies to do the needful and prevent the Governor from meddling in the electoral process.

“We wish to state categorically that the Obi-Datti Media Office will not accept any presidential election result that is not in tandem with the results issued at the polling units, copies of which we already have.

“We are calling the attention of local and international observers and other stakeholders, to this unfortunate and orchestrated anomaly. Please call INEC to order.”

Due to violence, suppression   of votes, late arrival of materials, and deliberate Disenfranchisement of Voters, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has extended voting to Sunday, 26th February, 2026.

The extension affected 18 States, including Lagos and Rivers States where Voters were deliberately denied their voting rights.

According to INEC, voting will begin by 8.00am and stop by 12 noon.

The affected States and Areas are:

1. Lagos: Surulere, Ikate, Okota, Eti-Osa, Kosofe and Oshodi.
2. FCT.
3. Ebonyi.
4. Rivers.
5. Imo
6. Anambra.
7. Kano.
8. Edo.
9. Delta.
10. Kogi.
11. Bayelsa.
12. Enugu.
13. Sokoto.
14. Taraba.
15. Abia
16. Ekiti.

Voting in the affected areas will resume by 8am till 12pm on the 26th February 2023.

Therefore, it advised that staff and stakeholders continue to adhere to all Government/INEC directives and security advisories concerning this election.

We would continue to monitor the situation and provide timely situation report across the country.