The Unite Nigeria Group (UNG) has called on the Independent National electoral Commission (INEC) to make good its promise of uploading election results to its portal for all Nigerians to see.
The group said this is the only way INEC’s much-vaunted transparency could be proven.
INEC had staked the transparency and integrity of the electoral process on the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), an electronic device designed to read Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs), authenticate voters and upload election results on INEC portal.
While the reading of PVCs and authentication of voters seem to have gone well, uploading of results has not been done contrary to what was promised Nigerians.
This has resulted in outcry across the country with many insisting that it was a ploy by INEC to manipulate the election results.
While INEC has refused to comment on the issue, many worried Nigerians insist that it casts a shadow of doubt on the process.
UNG said INEC must walk its talk.
“The only way INEC would assure the electorate of its impartiality and integrity is by walking their talk,” UNG said in a terse statement on Saturday night.
“This is the first presidential election that INEC promised to utilize all necessary technologies to deliver a successful election but has definitely started on a wrong footing.
“This particular election is like a huge keg of gun powder and INEC should not go near it with naked light,” the group warned.
In the same vein, political economist and chieftain of the Labour Party (LP), Prof Pat Utomi, also said the inaccessibility of the portal may lead to protest by youths if they suspect that their electoral will was about to be truncated in the face of what he described as Labour Party landslide.
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Utomi said: “I Just spoke to Labour Party chairman, Julius Abure, who fears that the upload failure epidemic may be seen by the youths as an attempt to rig a clear Labour landslide across the country. He is scared that if they hit the streets, Nigeria could burn. I urge INEC Chairman Mahmoud Yakubu to redeem himself.”
