The group said this would enable another person to conduct the March 11, 2023 Governorship and State Assembly elections and restore the confidence of Nigerians in the electoral body.
An election observer group, INAHURAT has called for the immediate resignation of the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu over the irregularities that characterised the conduct of last Saturday’s general election.
The group said this would enable another person to conduct the March 11, 2023 Governorship and State Assembly elections and restore the confidence of Nigerians in the electoral body.
INAHURAT also urged the leadership of the commission to investigate all those involved in compromising the server and Bimodal Verification Accreditation System (BVAS) during the elections that made the Presiding Officers across the country to be unable to upload results at the various polling units to the server after voting had ended.
The group disclosed this on Thursday in Abuja in a preliminary report signed by its National Coordinator, Comrade Gerald O. Katchy.
Katchy said the conduct of the election fell far below the minimum international standard, considering the complaints of discrepancies and fraud that characterised the exercise.
The statement read, "INAHURAT a partner and accredited observer with Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the 2023 General Election in Nigeria, having participated in this election in our capacity as Observers in the just concluded Presidential and National Assembly Elections that took place on the 25th February, 2023.
"Ladies and Gentleman, it is with great responsibility and concern with efforts made to deepen our electoral integrity, that INAHURAT deployed a team of electoral experts, researchers and observers in the 23 states of the 36 states in Nigeria including FCT Abuja.
"The 25th February Election was promised to be the best which made people who have never voted before to come out to vote for the first time but it is unfortunate that this election has failed the integrity and transparency test and has further divided the already polarized situation in our country today with reports from our field observers across the 23 states including FCT, which has become very imperative to make this post-election statement at this point, to let the world know that the 25th February, 2023 Presidential election in Nigeria declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission did not reflect the will of the people and has pushed our fragile democracy and collective existence to test among ethnic, tribal and religious fault lines.
"INEC repeatedly assured Nigerians of electronic transmission of results from the polling units to the server in line with the amended Electoral Act, 2022.
"We condemn in strongest terms observable sharp practices and fraud among others in the February 25th presidential election.
‘We, therefore, call for an independent committee to look into the activities of some officials of INEC alleged to have compromised this election. INEC Chairman, Prof. Yakubu Mahmoud, having overseen these avoidable failures, ranging from logistics, planning and execution, inability to communicate and convince Nigerians during the election could not be transmitted into their server even after 48 hours of the election.”
"We encourage that the commission chairman should toe the path of honor and resign to enable another person to conduct the March 11, 2023, Governorship and State Assembly elections in order to restore faith and confidence in the Commission and avoid unmitigated crisis," the group added.