A group, under the auspices of YesWeFit Revolutionary Movement, has knocked the Independent National Electoral Commission, over controversies surrounding the use of Bimodal Voters Accreditation System during last Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly elections.
The group also frowned on the inability of some INEC officials to use the BVAS to transmit election results electronically.
The convener of the group, Dr Thomas-Wilson Ikubese, in a statement, on Tuesday, said there was a need for INEC to suspend the ongoing collation and announcement of result in Abuja and conduct fresh elections at the polling units where there were issues across the country.
The statement read, “Nigerians came out in their numbers to vote their candidates of choice on February 25, 2023 because INEC promised them that their votes will count, by the introduction of Bimodal Voters Accreditation System and INEC Result Viewing Portal as reiterated by Prof Mahmood Yakubu and senior officials of INEC.
“The introduction of BVAS and iREV ensures that it will be one-man-one-vote and that the figures of votes cast per polling unit will be transmitted immediately to the INEC portal untampered as reflected in the new electoral act 2022.
“Unfortunately after counting the votes at the last election, the majority of INEC staff at the polling units could not upload the results to the INEC server using the BVAS machine, citing various suspicious technical reasons.”
The group stressed that the INEC must correct the problems to restore confidence of Nigerians in the electoral process and foster national unity.
It said the commission needed to “apologise to Nigerians for not uploading the results from the polling units immediately using the BVAS machines as promised and as expressly captured in the new electoral act 2022.
“The INEC should ask voters and its officials to return to their polling units this coming Saturday, March 4, 2023 where the original results that were announced at each polling unit on Saturday February 25, 2023 will be re-announced, verified by party agents and voters and properly transmitted to the INEC server using the BVAS machine.”
It further asked INEC to conduct fresh elections in polling units where INEC officials did not show up and where cases of violence were reported to have prevented people from voting.
The group appealed to the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), to prevail on the INEC chairman to act on its recommendations above “in the interest of our dear nation, so that history be kind to him.”
