Head of Mobilisation of the Obi-Datti Presidential Council and former member of Anambra State House of Assembly, Benchuks Nwosu, has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, to avert looming danger in the country by halting the release of the presidential election results.
Nwosu, in an open letter to the INEC boss, Yakubu in Abuja, yesterday, drew the attention of the chairman to a press conference he (Yakubu) had in November 2022 where he denied a news report that the commission was planning to dump the upholding of results in 2023 which he described as fake news.
“What is unfolding has a history from the pit of hell as an Eagle-eyed journalist had published in 2022 that INEC had jettisoned the uploading of results on Election Day but the commission led by Yakubu, in a press conference in November 2022, debunked the story and called it fake news.”
He quoted the INEC chairman as saying, ‘Let me seize this opportunity to respond to a story emanating from a section of the media that the commission has decided to jettison the uploading of polling results in real-time on election day. The story should please be disregarded as fake news, the commission will uphold polling ynit results and citizens will have access to those results in real terms as we upload them from the polling unit level.
‘This innovation was introduced by the commission, the commission cannot turn around and undermine itself. So, this technology has come to stay. We will upload polling level unit results and citizens will have the right to view these results’.
Nwosu then advised the INEC chairman to stop the release of the results because they are not a reflection of what happened at the various polling units across the country.
“I find this reluctance to give electoral victory to those who won it from a majority of Nigerians disheartening but, I am resolute and backed by history to say that not even the counsel of Ahithophel shall prevail over the mandate freely given by the majority of Nigerians to Peter Obi and Yusuf Datti Baba Ahmad as president and vice president-elect on Saturday, February 25, 2023.”
“I am, therefore calling on you, the INEC chairman, and the entire commission to do the needful and remove any inhibition put in place to prevent the will of Nigerian people freely given from prevailing.
“To do otherwise is to invite unimaginable chaos in our land the consequences of which might be far-reaching. Any attempt at truncating this election by undermining the voter’s mandate means that the brave lady whose head was broken but who insisted on exercising her inalienable right to vote acted in vain, the Labour Party supporter amputated from injuries sustained from thuggery attacks in Lagos and the LP woman leader who was killed in Kaduna or the LP senatorial candidate burnt to death in Enugu with his aides all suffered and died in vain.”
The former legislator said continuing the announcement of the results will injure the sensitivities of Nigerians and causes a fatal wound to the country’s democratic journey, especially with the reservations already raised by local and international observers and monitors to the presidential election. Nigeria certainly is not an Island but part of the global democratic community.”
He noted that Nigerians are going through incredible hardship and had looked forward to this presidential election to decide their future and having made such huge sacrifices, and watching it being blown off by the dubious wish of some corrupt few, will only lead to an unpleasant situation that we all will not find palatable nor wish for ourselves.”