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From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
Coalition of 18 Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) has demanded the resignation or sack of Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, over what it described as his ignominious role in the February 25 presidential election.
The coalition, at a protest at the Abuja headquarters of the Commission, yesterday, rejected the outcome of the poll, alleging the electoral umpire dashed the hopes of Nigerians who had expected a free, fair and credible election.
The group comprised members of Civil Society Forum of Nigeria, Nigeria Youth Development Forum, Democratic Youth Initiative, Forum for Social Justice, Movement for the Development of Democracy and Safeguard Nigeria Movement. Others are Alliance for People’s Welfare, Forward Nigeria Movement, Human Right Crusaders, Defenders of Democracy, Democratic Rights Assembly and Voter’s Rights Assembly.
In their hundreds, they crippled activities at the headquarters of the electoral commission for some minutes, flaying INEC’s failure to justify the huge funds made available to it by the government and other donor agencies in the just conduced polls. They also alleged that INEC flagrantly disobeyed its own rules and regulations and disregarded the provisions of the Electoral Act.
They carried placards that bore inscriptions like “Mahmood who are you working for?”, “N305bn yet inefficiency reigns in INEC”, “Nigerians demand cancellation of INEC results now”,”We reject INEC’s appropriation of results to APC”, “Nigerians reject 2023 February election”, “Yakubu must go now”, “Make our votes count”, “Yakubu Mahmood must resign or be sack”, “For a peaceful Nigeria,”, “Yakubu Mahmood was bias”, among others.
Head of the coalition, Isiaku Balogun, and convener, Dada Olabode, in a statement entitled: “2023 election is a sham, Nigerians reject manipulated results” claimed Yakubu failed Nigerians.
“Prior to the election, INEC had promised that their staff are well trained, motivated and physiologically prepared for the task, and importantly assured Nigerians that election results would be transmitted electronically to their server from the polling units across the 176, 846 available. INEC claimed the BVAS technology was going to be effectively deployed to forestall rigging and over-voting. These were the major pillar upon which Nigerians anchored their excitement and belief in the process of electing their leaders.
“However, events during and after the elections would later prove that INEC performed below expectations and pulled the wool over the eyes of Nigerians. Over 93.5 million Nigerians were registered for the February 2023 election, only 23 per cent of the total figure were able to vote. This is lower than previous elections.”
The collation lamented late distribution of election materials and failure to maximally utilize the use of BVAS technology for easy accreditation and eventual voting thereby increasing participation. It also lamented cases of over-voting in some centers, large scale violence orchestrated by political thugs supported by some desperate candidates who knew it was impossible for them to win, and non transmission of results from polling units to the INEC server.
“In view of above, it is obvious that INEC deceived Nigerians into believing it was ready for the election, whereas the commission was ill-prepared despite over N300billion of tax payers money the commission received to conduct the elections, and with possible manipulation of election results at the polling units due to non transmission in real time. It is safe therefore to conclude that INEC not only conducted the worst election so far in Nigeria’s history, but blatantly took the people for a ride,” he said.
