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From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
Former National Chairman of Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), Peter Ameh, has warned the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) not to cause confusion that will jeopardise a credible process in next year’s general elections.
The House of Representative candidate for Ankpa Federal Constituency also chided the commission for throwing the country into apprehension with report suggesting that it is planning to rig the poll.
Speaking to Daily Sun on telephone, Ameh argued that what the commission will essentially be doing at the Collation Centre is more or less reconciliation of results that passed through electronic processes of transmission.
“The implication of relevant section of the new Electoral Act on the collation is that collation will essentially be manual. The Collation Officer must however do that subject to the verification and confirmation that the number of accredited voters stated on the collated results are correct and consistent with the accredited voters recorded by BVAS from the polling unit.
“The explanation over manual collation of result is very clear and it states that when it is done manually and there is a dispute, the Collation Officer will use the accredited figure from BVAS and the results transmitted directly from the polling units to determine the correctness of the results collated manually.
“So, what they will essentially be doing at the Collation Centre is more or less reconciliation of results. What it means is that there is a dual process of accreditation and collation and they must all tally,” he explained.
Speaking further, the former National Chairman of deregistered PPA, warned that; “INEC must know that the 2023 general election is one driven by the people and any attempt to subvert the electoral process will be jeopardising the interest of Nigerians and the security of the country.
“The commission must act in line with what the people think especially as the report is generating a lot of disaffection across Nigeria, causing apprehension and fears.
“Anything that will bring distrust between INEC and the Nigerian electorate means that we are going into the election with fears. The commission must clarify that the manual collation is just embedded on the whole gamut of the electoral process.
“And it does not invalidate or exclude the electronic process. Every doubt must be cleared so that it will jeopardise the credibility of the free and fair electoral process,” Ameh warned.
