The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has rated the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) high in its conduct of the just concluded presidential and National Assembly (NASS) elections in the country.
Yakubu Maikyau, the president of the Association, who spoke in a Channels Television programme, on Saturday, also admitted that the elections were not without their challenges.
It is no news INEC had come under heavy criticism following reports of operational failures including malfunctioning of the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) and the late arrival of electoral officers to polling units across the country.
The election was also marred by allegations of results manipulation, voter suppression and intimidation as well as non-upload of election results from the polling units, among others.
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However, amidst all confrontations, on Wednesday, the Commission declared the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as the winner of the February 25 election after polling 8,794,726 votes to defeat the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi of the Labour Party, and 15 other candidates in the exercise.
Maikyau said: “I will say that the elections went well. Those who came out were happy to express their franchise.
“There were challenges, definitely. There were some infractions, some of which actually constituted electoral offences but on the whole, I will score INEC as having performed maybe about 78 or 80 percent in the delivery of these elections.
“That will be an A for every exam. Notwithstanding, all the things that happened which we are not ignoring.
“That is why we are admonishing and advising INEC and recommending to INEC that in those areas where we saw lapses in the election held on the 25th February 2023, deliberate efforts must be taken to make sure that those lapses did not occur again in the elections that are coming up on the 11th March because when these lapses happened, it impacted on the confidence of the public in the process.”
