The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has accepted responsibilities for the failure to upload Saturday’s Presidential and National Assembly election and allayed the fears of Nigerians, of possible manipulation of election results.
This followed delays in uploading Saturday’s election result on its Results Viewing Portal (IReV).
The election umpire, while apologizing to Nigerians over the delays on Sunday, admitted that technical hitches affected the Results Viewing Portal, but assured that the results are tamper proof in the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System ( BVAS ) used for accreditation during the election.
Read also:IReV: INEC takes responsibility for challenges with uploading results
In a statement, Festus Okoye, the INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, while admitting that it’s portal “ has been slow and unsteady”, regretted the set back, even as he assured that its “ technical team are assiduously working on resolving the problem”
“We also wish to assure Nigerians that results from the Polling Units, copies of which were issued to political parties, are safe on both the BVAS and the IReV portal.
“These results cannot be tampered with and any discrepancy between them and the physical results used in collation will be thoroughly investigated and remediated, in line with Section 65 of the Electoral Act 2022”
The statement came as many Nigerians are expressing fears that further delays may give rooms for unscrupulous people to begin manipulation of the results
Atiku Abubakar, the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, had asked Mahmoud Yakubu, the National Chairman of INEC, to prevail on the Collation Officers to upload the results from the Polling Units to the INEC server immediately.
Atiku had stated that this has become necessary to checkmate some governors who are trying to compromise the results at the local government collation level, according to Paul Ibe, Media Adviser to the PDP candidate.
“ It will be a disservice to Nigerians and a negation to democracy for anyone to subvert the will of the people as freely expressed in their votes of yesterday,” Atiku said.
The PDP flag bearers also called on Nigerians to be calm but vigilant to ensure that anti-democratic elements who are masquerading as progressives do not steal their mandate.
Okoye stated that the Commission is aware of challenges with the INEC Results Viewing Portal (IReV), adding that unlike the off-season elections where the portal was used, it has been relatively slow and unsteady.
According to him, “The Commission regrets this setback, especially because of the importance of IReV in our results management process.
“The problem is totally due to technical hitches related to scaling up the IReV from a platform for managing off-season, State elections, to one for managing nationwide general elections. It is indeed not unusual for glitches to occur and be corrected in such situations.
“Consequently, the Commission wishes to assure Nigerians that the challenges are not due to any intrusion or sabotage of our systems, and that the IReV remains well-secured.
“Our technical team is working assiduously to solve all the outstanding problems, and users of the IReV would have noticed improvements since last night.
“While we fully appreciate the concerns of the public on this situation and welcome various suggestions that we have received from concerned Nigerians, it is important to avoid statements and actions that can heat up the polity at this time or promote disaffection towards the Commission.
“We take full responsibility for the problems and regret the distress that they have caused the candidates, political parties and the electorate”,
