The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday claimed that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was attempting to destroy and erase evidence of rigging in the February 25 presidential election.
Its National Publicity Secretary Debo Ologunagba told reporters at news briefing that the electoral umpire was in desperate move to prevent the PDP and its presidential candidate from obtaining necessary evidence by seeking an ordered of the court to reconfigure the BVAS machines.
According to the PDP, the request by INEC would wipe out relevant information that the party and its candidate require to prosecute their case at the Presidential Election Tribunal.
Ologunagba said: “This reprehensible action by INEC to frustrate the desire of Nigerians to get redress through the court is a clear recipe for crisis…”
According to the PDP spokesman, the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu hurriedly announced a winner in the election despite allegation of malpractices and violation of several provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022 by INEC and its officials.
He alleged: “The INEC chairman bypassed all the steps and procedures provided by the Electoral Act, 2022 for the declaration of results, including to announce and declare only results that were transmitted directly from the polling units to the INEC server/website and to review the results in the event of disputes and objections as to the correctness and consistency of the collated results.”
The party cited Section 64 (6) of the Electoral Act to buttress its point.
