The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has called on Mahmood Yakubu, INEC chair, to honour his words to upload election results from Imo, Kogi, and Bayelsa on the commission’s Result Viewing Portal (IReV).
PDP spokesman Debo Ologunagba said this while addressing a news conference on Sunday in Abuja.
Mr Ologunagba said the PDP had noted a statement by Mr Yakubu that INEC would make full use of its Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and the IReV portal for uploading and electronic transmission of results in Imo, Bayelsa and Kogi governorship election.
“The PDP notes that the INEC chairman has confirmed the use of BVAS and IREV in this election and even in previous elections is a mandatory statutory requirement of the law. The PDP holds Yakubu directly responsible and accountable to his pronouncements and that INEC is bound by law to electronically transmit results directly from the polling units using these technologies.
“The PDP is fully prepared for these elections and, in line with the commitment of INEC, will not accept any other means of transmitting results in these elections except as this manner pronounced by the INEC Chairman in line with the requirement of Electoral Act, 2022,” Mr Ologunagba said.
He also reiterated the party’s demands for the immediate removal of the INEC resident electoral commissioner in Imo, PSylvia Agu. He said the PDP and other political parties had written several letters to INEC on the demand over the allegation that Mr Agu had been compromised.
“Recently, the political parties, including the PDP, Labour Party, Young Progressives Party (YPP), African Democratic Party (ADC), and Action Alliance (AA), among others, staged a peaceful protest to INEC demanding for her immediate removal.
“Agu is a relation of a national officer of the APC, and there are allegations that she is being further compromised to assist the APC to rig the Nov. 11 governorship election in Imo state. The continuing stay in office of Agu as Imo REC is provocative and inciting and amounts to testing the will of the people of Imo State and daring them to do their worst,” said the PDP politician.
He added, “INEC has a lot of RECs from which the INEC Chairman can choose to replace Agu and avoid a scenario that could be worse than what happened in the Adamawa state governorship election where INEC refused to change the compromised REC.
“INEC chairman must note that the integrity of an election process is directly related to the confidence of the electorate.”
(NAN)
