Dino Melaye, the National Collation Agent for the People Democratic Party and other aggrieved party agents walked out of the International Conference Centre in Abuja over alleged rigging.
Melaye, Ihedioha, as well as the agents of the Labour Party and others, had complained that the results presented by INEC SCOPs weren’t uploaded on the commission’s Results Viewing Portal (IReV), as repeatedly promised by the electoral umpire before the February 25 presidential poll.
He said, “Having observed that the Chairman of INEC is determined to rig the elections by making sure that results are not uploaded, by vehemently making a presentation that makes it look as if we are all here to rubber- stamp the fraud cooked between INEC and the APC, we are saying we are not here to rubberstamp the electoral fraud that have been prepared by INEC and the APC.
“We are Nigerians. There is nowhere on the server that results have been uploaded.
“The political parties here staged a walkout to express the unfortunate politicisation and commercialisation of our electoral process.”
In his response, the INEC chairman maintained that there was no over voting in Ekiti and that the results presented by the SCOPs stand. Yakubu also said the process must continue, which in reaction made Melaye, Ihedioha and others stormed out of the national collation centre.
Before the break, Mahmood had cautioned Melaye not to be “disruptive” of the collation process at the insistence of the PDP chieftain that the results announced by the SCOPs should first have been uploaded on IReV for transparency and accountability.
Many party leaders have bitterly complained that INEC officials at the polling units were unable to upload election results to the IReV. The IReV and the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) are new technologies introduced by the electoral body for the accreditation and electronic transmission of votes for this year’s polls.
Meanwhile, the Social Democratic Party ( SDP), People’s Redemption Party (PRP), ACCORD Party amongst others have dissociated themselves from the staged walkout by some aggrieved party representatives