Datti Baba Ahmed, the Vice-Presidential candidate of the Labour Party, has said that failure to upload election results to INEC’s IReV portal at the polling units constitutes a breach of the electoral act.
He said this during a televised joint press conference with Ifeanyi Okowa, the Vice-presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) on Tuesday, February 28. He said:
- “All the polling units’ results that were not uploaded to IREV is a breach of the electoral act. This is a legal breach, and it is not violence if Nigerians come out peacefully and speak out against these illegalities.”
The demand for justice: Baba Ahmed said that Nigerians need to demand justice for this legal breach. According to him, real peace is the presence of justice. He stated that Nigerians cannot make the jobs of those who want to destroy Nige easy. He said:
- “The more peaceful Nigerians are, the more we encourage these people who want to destroy the country. The call against the collation of the results is legal and constitutional. For how long will Nigerians allow themselves to be cheated? Governments have fallen in Africa because the price of bread went up, anybody waiting to hear a call to arms will never hear it. I will never call for violence, but I will continue to say good governance calls for the people who want it.”
Baba Ahmed also said that although the INEC Prof. Mahmood Yakubu is an exalted common civil servant, he has no power to make and break laws. However, he is making laws by deciding to continue with legal breaches.
He accused the INEC Chairman of ignoring complaints from political parties and going ahead to continue collating results amid manipulation of results and challenges marring the February 25 elections across the country.
As a response to a question regarding the earlier press conference given by some members of the APC presidential campaign council, Baba Ahmed said he and Okowa will only speak directly to Tinubu or Shettima and not to the APC spokespersons.
INEC Chairman’s previous advocacy for free and fair elections: Also addressing Journalists during the press conference, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa, the VP candidate for the PDP said that the purpose of the joint press conference is to call on the INEC Chairman to do what is right because he fought for the law in collaboration with the civil societies. He said:
- “He fought for this. He travelled all the way to the United States and Chatham House in the United Kingdom to talk about INEC’s readiness to conduct credible elections. Why go through a fight for free and fair elections only to allow things to end up like this?
- “He still has an opportunity to do the right thing by saving Nigeria and putting a stop to the further collation of the results. All electoral staff has sworn an oath of loyalty and neutrality. We cannot allow a team of men to destroy the future of this nation. We are hoping that with his words from the past, he will do what is right but if he fails to do that, we will let you know our next line of action.”
What you should know: Meanwhile, at the National Collation Center in Abuja, Barr. Daniel Nwuanyanwu, the candidate for the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) told the INEC Chairman that he has his party’s support to go ahead with the collation of results. He stated further that aggrieved parties can go to court because the judiciary system has proved to be trustworthy.
