Protesters in Abuja call for electronic transmission of poll results by INEC
Some protesters on Tuesday, February 28, 2023 occupied the streets to the presidential collation centre, Abuja to call for the electronic transmission of results from the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
The demonstrators did not move near the collation centre, as rumoured on social media space.
The security agents had barricaded the roads leading to the collation centre since the collation of results on Saturday, February 25, 2023.
They showed dissatisfaction over the refusal of the electoral commission to transmit the results electronically.
The Informant247 recalls that Senator Dino Melaye of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) led agents of political parties out of the collation centre.
One of the protesters told the newsmen that President Muhammadu Buhar should allow his reputation to be soiled by the electoral commission.
She said: “INEC assured us that it would be a transparent process. They assured us of a transparent process and that the BVAS would be used, which is supposed to be an electronic process. Yet, after three days, 23 states still need to be uploaded. Why? Does this mean we will be doing this for one week?
“Why will a result be deleted from a platform after it has been uploaded? What are they up to? All we asked for was a transparent process. We just wanted whoever we voted for to emerge as the president of this country. We just wanted hope; we just wanted things to work. We are not asking for too much.
“We are not violent. Nobody is holding any weapon; we are just trying to make our voices heard. Please, our president should call the INEC chairman to order. Eight years have passed, and we don’t care what happened. We are looking to the future. Buhari should not let his legacy to be tarnished. Let them follow due process. Whosoever we have voted for should be announced as the president of the country. Let things be done rightly.”
Ilemona Onoja, another protest said they wanted the INEC boss to put to practice what he promised promised the people of Nigeria before the election, which was a transparent and open election process.
Onoja stated: “We came out on the 25th of February to cast our votes for our preferred candidates. We were told that a process was going to be followed. This process involves accreditation, voting and our ballots will be counted. After it has been counted, it will be transmitted directly to a central server. And that on the day of the election, at the national collation centre, that central server will be displayed and we will be able to follow the results.
“Now, all we are saying is, we don’t mind if our preferred candidate loses, just give us a transparent and open process. Let us be able to see the results. INEC promised us they will follow a certain procedure, we are asking them to follow it.”
