Polls: INEC compromised results from polling units, NLC alleges

Forum 1 year ago

Polls: INEC compromised results from polling units, NLC alleges

Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, yesterday accused the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, of compromising the results from the polling units by sabotaging the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, that earlier gave Nigerians hope for credible and acceptable elections.

In a statement yesterday, the President of NLC, Joe Ajaero, warned that any government formed from the current Presidential result collation would lack legitimacy as it has been questioned critically by major stakeholders with INEC unable to give satisfactory explanations to the germane issues raised.

Among others, the statement read “As it stands now, the current Presidential result collation lacks legitimacy as it has been questioned critically by major stakeholders with INEC unable to give satisfactory explanations to the germane issues raised.

“Since INEC has compromised the sources of the results from the Polling units by the mere action of the clear sabotage of the BVAS an instrument that had hitherto given Nigerians hope for a more free, fair, credible, and acceptable election in 2023, there is nothing that will restore this hope and build belief than to go back to the results as captured by the BVAS. If this is no longer possible, we call for a pause in the further announcement of the Presidential results and carry out a backward review before deciding on the way forward.

“INEC’s actions have sabotaged the integrity of the election and undermined the credibility of its outcomes. It is the process that confers legitimacy on the outcome and anything that contaminates it renders the outcomes inchoate. This is not what this country needs right now especially when we are confronted with insurgencies, banditry, kidnappings, and other very criminal acts around the nation. We need outcomes that build national cohesion and solidarity and not one that divides.

“Nigerian workers find it difficult to believe that in this day and age, INEC could not collate results from its own Servers when far less funded organisations both locally and internationally have done so seamlessly? Many Organisations and nations have performed this very basic task without this storm. It is neither the lack of capacity nor the paucity of resources at INEC’s disposal that has led to this farce but the greed factor that has led to the intentional scuttling of a simple process for the benefit of a few individuals and to the detriment of the whole nation. A product is always subject to the processes that give birth to it and if that process becomes contaminated, the product becomes defiled.

“We do not understand the driving force behind INEC’s pursuit of announcing a Presidential election result with processes that are clearly fraught with serious irregularities? We do not understand why INEC has suddenly become deaf to sound reason but continues to pursue a path that may put the whole nation in crisis. It will be the height of irresponsibility to rush our nation into a cul-de-sac.

“A government that is built on subverting the sovereign will not be seen to be legitimate. Such illegitimacy will do the footsteps of the administration and will surely make it incapable of providing acceptable governance to the people.

“If INEC announces a result that is dogged by this confusion and questions, how can a government built on it survive? How can such a government hope to mobilise the people? How will such a government build trust and confidence in the people for whatever policies and programmes may become the anchor for its governance projections? How can such government garner the support of the citizenry it hopes to lead? How can it wield authority?

“The NLC is seriously worried knowing that a government that lacks legitimacy is like a fish out of water and can only survive by the sheer strength of brutal force thus a recipe for national disaster. INEC should therefore not give Nigerians an “Abiku or Ogbanje” that is billed to give us so much trouble and eventually die in infancy. This nation must be saved from this avoidable disaster.