In a joint press conference, in Abuja, on Tuesday, the vice-presidential candidates said the failure of the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, to upload results of polling units in the INEC portal amounts to a breach of its election guidelines.
As criticism continues to trail Saturday's presidential and National Assembly elections, the vice-presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party and Labour Party, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa and Dr Yusuf Baba-Ahmed respectively have described the poll as a sham.
In a joint press conference, in Abuja, on Tuesday, the vice-presidential candidates said the failure of the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, to upload results of polling units in the INEC portal amounts to a breach of its election guidelines.
They noted that it violates the constitution and Electoral Act of 2022 from which the guidelines derive their powers.
The duo rejected Yakubu’s position that he would review the results after the declaration of the results had been made.
Okowa, who read out the statement during the conference, urged the INEC Chairman to cancel the elections.
“What the Chairman should do is to go ahead and cancel the election, He has taken an oath, he should tell Nigerians the truth,” he said.
“The truth is that they have not uploaded the results. What happened? Is their system down? What happened in INEC? Is there a compromise? He asked.
“The only way to go is to cancel. Nigerians are not fools; the INEC chairman asked for this law. What he has been done is illegal. If their portal is down, let him tell Nigerians; the right thing to do is for him to cancel this election,” the joint statement said, describing the general elections as a “sham”.
Okowa and Datti-Ahmed further noted that the elections were not free not fair and accused Yakubu of “playing to a predetermined script”.
According to them, the “election and transmission of the results must be in tandem with the Electoral Act and the INEC guidelines,” adding that “INEC is under a statutory obligation to transmit election results electronically”.
They urged INEC to commence the process for fresh general elections immediately after cancelling Saturday’s elections.