PRESS RELEASE ON THE 2023 GENERAL ELECTIONS
Nigerians came out in their numbers to vote their candidates of choice on 25th February 2023 because INEC promised them that their votes will count, by the introduction of Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) and INEC Result Viewing Portal (iREV), as reiterated by Prof Mahmood Yakubu and senior officials of INEC.
The introduction of BVAS and iREV ensure that it will be one-man-one-vote and that the figures of votes cast per polling unit will be transmitted immediately to the INEC portal untampered as reflected in the new electoral act 2022
Unfortunately after counting the votes at the last election, the majority of INEC staff at the polling units could not upload the results to the INEC server using the BVAS machine, citing various suspicious technical reasons!
A few that managed to upload did so using the offline mode, a process that many claimed is subject to manipulation.
Since the serial announcement of results began at the National Collation Center in Abuja on Sunday 26th February 2023, political parties have raised serious objections to the figures being assigned to their parties, claiming that these digits do not reflect the votes cast at the various polling units across the country.
In order to restore confidence in the electoral process and foster national unity, I urge INEC to take the following steps urgently;
- Apologize to Nigerians for not uploading the results from the polling units immediately using the BVAS machines as promised ab initio and as expressly captured in the new electoral act 2022.
- Stop the ongoing collation and announcement of results at the National Collation Center Abuja.
- Ask voters and INEC officials to return to their polling units this coming Saturday, 4th March 2023 where the original results that were announced at each polling unit on Saturday 25th February 2023 will be re-announced, verified by party agents and voters and properly transmitted to the INEC server using the BVAS machine.
- Conduct fresh elections in polling units where INEC officials did not show up and where cases of violence were reported to have prevented people from voting.
I appeal to His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari to reach out to the INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu as to activating the above recommendations in the interest of our dear nation, so that history be kind to him.
Dr Thomas-Wilson Ikubese
Convener, YesWeFit Revolutionary Movement
28th February, 2023.
