On Tuesday, a number of protestors came to the streets of Abuja to call for the Independent National Election Commission, INEC, to transmit the presidential election results electronically.
The demonstrators, contrary to reports, were never at the National Collation Centre, which is located inside the International Conference Centre, since they were kept back by security forces on the outer ring, two kilometers from the ICC.
Several demonstrators, who claimed to be associated with various political parties, criticized the INEC Results Viewing Portal IReV for its tardy upload of results.
According to Vanguard, one of the demonstrators, Ilemona Onoja, called on the INEC Chairman to keep his promise to ensure a transparent process while speaking with journalists during the demonstration.
He said the process of electronic transmission was not followed, rather “what we are seeing is a situation where results that were written, that didn’t follow the process, are being announced as the results of the election contrary to the provisions of the Electoral Act, contrary to the INEC guidelines that they issued, and contrary to the promises of the INEC chairman”.
“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”, he added.
Another protester, Barr. Lillian Kozau, also spoke out and urged President Muhammadu Buhari not to allow anyone to destroy his reputation.
“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?”, Barr. Lillian questioned.
