•Report by Kamil Opeyemi
Indications emerged on Sunday of possible resort to violence by loyalists of the major political parties and their presidential candidates across the country.
This is owing to the claims to victory by each of the candidates of the All Progressive Congress, Bola Tinubu; Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar and their Labour Party’s counterpart, Peter Obi.
The trio, in different statements have been speaking of victory even when the Independent National Electoral Commission is yet to make the results known.
In a press statement by its Chairman, Labour Party (LP) accused some officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of colluding with certain security agencies to stall the upload of results to the Commission’s central server.
“It has come to the attention of the national leadership of the Labour Party on the electoral impunity going on in Lagos and Delta states after today’s presidential and national assembly elections where the results of the presidential elections collated in various polling units in the states are not being uploaded to the Central Server,” Julius Abure had said
He said the party is alarmed that some officials of the INEC in connivance with the security agencies, including the Police are claiming that the BVAS deployed in most polling units have suddenly developed fault and therefore cannot be used to upload results emanating from the polling units.
Abure cited incidents in Lagos State, including areas such as Agege, Kosofe, Oshodi-Isolo, Surulere, and Ibeju Lekki.
He decried that results show that Labour Party won convincingly adding that similar manipulation was recorded in Delta State across most collation centres.
“The claims by INEC officials that the BVAS suddenly developed fault and could not be used to upload results of the presidential election could only be a tale from the moonlight.
“We have refused to buy the falsehood. We ask, is it not the same BVAS that was used to upload the results emanating from the Senate and House of Representatives election that is used for the presidential election? How did they all suddenly developed fault?”
The PDP has also said Atiku “is already coasting to victory.”
The PDP noted that Atiku Abubakar is securing the highest number of valid votes cast as well as the statutory 25% in at least two third of the States of the Federation to ultimately breast the tape on the first ballot.
“Our Party appreciates Nigerians from across the country for putting their avowed solidarity and support for Atiku Abubakar into action by coming out enmasse to give their votes to the PDP, irrespective of ethnicity, creed, age and even political affiliations.
“From preliminary results, it is clear that Atiku Abubakar’s message of hope, unity, security and rebuilding of our nation has been positively received by Nigerians who are eager to embrace a new era under a purposeful leadership which the PDP and Atiku Abubakar embody.
“Our Party therefore calls on INEC to ensure very transparent and credible collation process in such a manner that guarantees that all votes count and that the Will of the people is respected.
“INEC should not only ensure prompt uploading of results but also continue to make the result viewing portal available to the public in the interest of transparency,” Ologunagba said
In its swift reaction, the ruling party in the country, All Progressives Congress, APC, urged its opponents guard their utterances.
The APC in a statement signed by the spokesperson of Tinubu-Shettima campaign council, Festus Keyamo said those claims by the opposition parties could jeopardize the integrity of the elections.
Keyamo alleged that the spokespersons of the opposition parties have threatened fire and brimstone if their own version of some concocted results are not announced in a bid to be the judge, jury and executioner in this elections.
He said: “Our attention has been drawn to some incendiary comments by spokespersons of the opposition parties, notably the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP) regarding the yet-to-be-announced results of the elections that held yesterday. Some of them have threatened fire and brimstone if their own version of some concocted results are not announced in a bid to be the judge, jury and executioner in this elections.
“Similarly, to rile up their supporters against the country, they play up some isolated incidents of violence in our strongholds, whereas we have tons of videos of massive electoral malpractices like violence against non-LP supporters, forcing and guiding women and children to thumb-print ballot papers for LP and massive thumb-printing of ballot papers by both PDP and LP supporters in some parts of the country.
“In addition, in one breath one of the spokespersons of the PDP complained about a certain headline in a newspaper about early results, yet in condemning the newspaper, he also makes unfounded claims about the yet-to-be released results.”
He stressed that, APC and its presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu have decided to be calm to await the official announcement of the results and to pursue any grievance (if any) in a lawful manner.
“But we shall not sit back and allow such unguided comments to gain grounds in order to foist a particular narrative on our citizens and the international community.
“Recall that all parties signed the Peace Accord twice before the eyes of the world. Now is the time to abide by the terms of that accord and show love for country over and above personal ambitions.
“We have all campaigned hard and strong. The Nigerian people have listened to all of us and made their decisions. Now is the time to hear the voices of Nigerians as the results are released and not our own voices.
“The body officially designated to reflect the voices of Nigerians is the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). No Party can bully them by threats to do its own bidding. Neither will the APC be cowed into silence by this disgusting antics of the opposition parties.”
He called on the International Observers and friends of Nigeria not to be distracted, but to focus on the process as it unfolds.
Reacting, the electoral umpire in the country, INEC on Sunday appealed to various political parties to pay attention to the release of presidential and National Assembly election results.
He added that only the commission is legally responsible for the release of election results.
“I appeal to all political parties and media organisations to draw their figures only from the official results released by the commission as the only body constitutionally responsible for releasing official election figures,” INEC boss, Prof Mahmood Yakubu had said
Already, the Lagos command of the police warned Sunday evening of an imminent violence which it however vowed to deal with.
Its spokesman, Benjamin Hundeyin, stated this in a tweet via his verified page.