▪︎”INEC ICT Director should be fired”
Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, has been told to immediately transmit poll results electronically or resign.
Former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Deputy National Chairman, Chief Olabode George, declared this at a press conference in Lagos on Monday.
To him, if the Director of ICT at INEC is the cause of the delay or lack of capacity to transmit the result electronically, Yakubu should sack him or her immediately.
George said “the regress to manual collation at this technological age is curious”, describing the electoral agency as a disappointment.
George lauded President Muhammadu Buhari’s position on the elections, saying that he had modernised the process.
But, objecting to INEC ‘s performance, he said:”It is disheartening to learn that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has expressed the position that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), meant for the seamless transmission of election results electronically into the commission’s server is failing, and thus, necessitating the reversal to the manual system.
“This is against the standard for the election and it is not acceptable at all, as we are being taken back to the period of misery, when elections results were manipulated between the polling units and the collation centres.”
He added:”It is the most despicable shameful act, after the certification of the veracity of the BVAS, for the transmission process of results, which was attested to, by the mock process successfully embarked on by INEC before the election, coupled by the successful deployment of the system for the Ekiti, Anambra and Osun governorship elections.”
George said INEC’s position was also dealing a severe blow to the effort of developed countries like the United States (U.S.), who made huge financial and material commitment to the electoral process.
He queried:”How can we accept this uncivilised abuse against an established electoral reform already gazetted and entrenched as Electoral Act in our Constitution?”
George called on the international community , who had their observers on ground, to condemn the self-destructive and annihilating political malfeasance.
He added:”The transmission of the ongoing collation for the Presidential and
National Assembly election results must be transmitted electronically as enunciated by INEC.
“INEC, should not succumb to any pressure, to force to alternate the results from the polling units, as history
would judge the Chairman of the electoral body, who swore to oath to ensure free, fair, and credible electoral process.
“In the event of being pressured to alternate results of the election, the
INEC Chairman should raise his voice for Nigerians to hear or step down from his
position.”
