The Catholic Caritas Foundation of Nigeria has asked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to apologise to Nigerians for failing to meet their expectations in the February 2023 general elections.
The Executive Director of the Foundation, Rev. Fr. Uchechukwu Obodoechina, stated this on Friday during the presentation of the 2023 general election observation report in Nigeria by the Church and Society department of the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria.
Rev. Fr. Obodoechina, who noted that their observations revealed that millions of Nigerians were left disappointed with the overall performance of INEC in the conduct of the election, argued that the election was the most disputed in the history of Nigeria.
He explained that with a total of 1,341 litigations instituted by 10 political parties trailing the outcome of the election and representing 90% of the 1,490 contested seats, there is no doubt that the polls were the most litigated since 1959.
Rev. Fr. Obodoechina also called for the adoption of the Justice Uwais Commission’s recommendation in the selection of the INEC chairman, noting that as long as the appointment of the chairman of the Commission remains the prerogative of the executive arm of government, the body will never be independent.
Fr. Obodoechina praised INEC when he said: “The BIVAS machine performed optimally well in the accreditation of voters during the elections. And we commend INEC in that regard.”
He queried why: “INEC officials deliberately refused to upload the results of the Presidential election to the IReV portal, explaining, without conviction, “technical glitches”, that, surprisingly affected only the transmission of Presidential results.
At the time of this report, INEC has not explained what the “glitches” were: technical, electronic, equipment failure, or outright human manipulations.
“It is estimated that more than 3 billion Naira will be spent by INEC in defending cases brought against it due to the outcome of the elections. Using 3 billion Naira of taxpayers’ money to defend what was generally seen as a deliberate act of wrongdoing makes no sense.
“The ball is now before the Courts and one question that agitates people’s minds is why it should be so. If the Courts should be the avenue of determining who wins elections in Nigeria, what is the essence of establishing INEC?”
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