It is over a week that the presidential election held in Nigeria and Nigerians are not able to access all the results online. The results upload ahs been below expectation.
People have accused INEC of not keeping its promise of uploading all results on election day from polling units.
While this is so, INEC is promising to deliver credible elections in the upcoming governorship election.
Professor Mahmood Yakubu promised to oversee the strict application of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System during a meeting with Resident Electoral Commissioners (BVAS).
To allay fears, he said: “Any staff members who have been proven to have been careless, whether they are regular or ad-hoc officials, including collation and returning officers, shall not participate in the upcoming elections”.
When prima facie proof of misconduct has been proven, RECs must also take quick disciplinary action, the INEC chairman said.
Nothing But A Hypocrite
Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has blasted Professor Yakubu, the INEC chairman, for promising to deliver credible governorship elections by ensuring that INEC staff members found to have been careless during the presidential election would be disqualified from voting in the March 11 governorship election.
But, in a statement, Atiku’s spokesperson, Mr. Phrank Shaibu, characterised Yakubu’s pledges as meaningless and unconvincing in a statement on Sunday.
Shaibu continued by saying that the INEC chairman was merely attempting to maintain his composure following the worst elections Nigeria had ever experienced since independence.
“The INEC chairman is nothing but a hypocrite, He allowed himself to be used, or he used himself, to undermine Nigerians’ will after pledging to upload the results from voting booths in real time.
“You’ll be shocked to learn that seven days after the election, the complete results still haven’t been posted to INEC’s result viewing portal.
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“The election was so terrible that it didn’t live up to Nigerians’ expectations, as Ambassador Mary Beth Leon and numerous foreign media outlets and observers have reiterated.
“The chairman of INEC is attempting to assign responsibility rather than apologies.
‘Needs To Step Aside’
“After INEC’s abysmal performance at the scam election of February 25, he is now trying to save face, insisting that errant staff would be punished and would not be deployed in the March 11 governorship poll.
“This is arrant nonsense.
“Is INEC planning on training new staff within five days that will replace the so-called errant ones?
“Is he going to recruit new staff or deploy some from outer space?
“Professor Yakubu should be man enough to own up to his failure. A fish rots from the head down, and that is what has happened at INEC.
“Rather than suspend any staff, the INEC chairman is the one that needs to step aside as his first act of contrition”.
There is a signed petition by Nigerians demanding that the US, UK an Europe countries to place a visa ban on the INEC chairman after a failure to conduct a free and fair election during the presidential election.
