A chieftain of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and a member of the National Campaign Council for the Edo governorship election, Prince Seyi Ajibola, has described the outcome of last Saturday’s election in Edo State as an embarrassment to the nation’s electoral system.
Ajibola, in a statement on Tuesday, explained that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) failed the citizens by not delivering a credible poll for the people of Edo State. He added that despite the huge resources committed, the commission was unable to deploy technology to safeguard the people’s mandate.
According to the president of Victory Advocates of Nigeria (VAN), a national support group of the PDP, the IREV portal failed to deliver and prevent the manipulation of election results, allegedly by agents of the ruling party.
He said, “The outcome of the just-concluded Edo State election is another worrisome and embarrassing state of our electoral system. It has proven once again that Nigerians are at the mercy of the Independent National Electoral Commission, which is the main body empowered to conduct free, fair, and transparent elections in our country to strengthen our democracy.
With the huge amounts invested in this commission to ensure credibility and reduce voter apathy, it’s unfortunate that INEC has continued to fail Nigerians in the trust placed in them.
“Considering the outcome of the Edo State election, Victory Advocates of Nigeria (VAN), a national support group of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), berated the efforts of INEC for not proving to Nigerians that the IREV portal, which was originally designed to serve as another means of verifying election results from polling units, is just ‘a mere blog’ that has contributed nothing to the advancement of our electoral process in Nigeria.
“If we continue to develop our technology without wisdom or prudence, our tools may become our downfall. It’s important for us as a nation to strive for continuous improvement.
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“Nigerians have continued to lose confidence in our elections because the commission has failed us many times. If results uploaded on IREV are not relevant to our laws, and even to INEC itself, then why introduce it? The PDP and other opposition parties that do not have the federal might to rig elections place their trust in unit elections that are collated and uploaded, but it has been proven irrelevant at the national and state collation centers and even in our courts, as no court has ever seen it as a subject for decision-making.
“Technology will never replace great teachers, but technology in the hands of great teachers is transformational. INEC should prove to Nigerians their readiness to handle our elections, or the sector should be redesigned by our national assembly members.
“Hence, it’s the same life, whether we spend it laughing or crying. INEC should be answerable to Nigerians, irrespective of which party wins. Whenever questions are raised regarding improvement or clarity, the commission should be responsible enough to answer instead of referring Nigerians to ‘go to court.'”
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