#NigeriaDecides2023: No Presidential Results On INEC Portal Yet – Pat Utomi Suspects Plots To Rig Election
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has not yet released Presidential election results from polling stations on its official portal six hours after voting closed.
During a meeting with leaders of foreign election observers on Wednesday, the Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu, mentioned that raw election results will not be sent electronically.
He said that the presiding officers would have to use the BVAS to take pictures of the election results on each polling unit’s sheet and upload them to the INEC Result Viewing Portal so that Nigerians could see them.
He said “The BVAS confirms that the cards issued by the commission and presented by the voter are genuine and the voter is authenticated using the fingerprint and where it failed, the facial. Where both fail, the voter can’t vote. That is a matter of law.“After the process is completed at the polling unit, the image of the polling unit result will be taken by the BVAS and uploaded into what we call the INEC Result Viewing Portal where citizens can see polling unit level results as the processes are completed at polling unit level.”
However, hours after the close of voting the INEC is yet to fulfil its promise about uploading results from polling units for Nigerians to see.
Reports also indicated that no polling unit result has been uploaded so far because the portal has inaccessible.
The new development has stirred up speculation and fears of possible plans to rig election the elections.
Reacting to the development, a Labour Party chieftain, Prof Pat Utomi said the inability to log on to the INEC portal might cause a protest among the youths who suspect anything.
Utomi said: “Just spoke to Labour Party Chairman Abure who fears that the upload failure epidemic may be seen by the youth as an attempt to rig a clear Labour landslide across the country. He is scared that if they hit the streets Nigeria could burn. I urge Chairman Yakubu to redeem himself.”
