Bola Badmus- Lagos
Candidates of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos State in the just concluded National Assembly Election in respect of Lagos West and Lagos Central Senatorial Districts on Thursday called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to audit and review all collated results with Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) in the affected districts.
The candidates namely Otunba Segun Adewale for Lagos West and Prince Wale Gomez for Lagos Central, while making the call at a press conference, declared that they emerged outright winners of the polls going by the results obtained by their agents from each of the polling units in their districts as contained in INEC Form EC8A used to record votes and, therefore, no need to cancel or go for another round of election.
Other candidates at the joint press conference include, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that candidates at the conference include Mr Olumuyiwa Owadara, the PDP Candidate in Oshodi-Isolo Federal Constituency I and his counter part in Somolu, Mr Oluwaseyi Olowu popularly calked Chicago.
This was just as they urged INEC to use the window of seven days allowed by law to compare and audit results announced with the one transmitted through BVAS into INEC IReV (result viewing portal).
Adewale, popularly known as Aeroland, while addressing newsmen, said that he was still marvelled at where INEC got the figures collated to return winner in the poll, saying the figure did not correspond with what PDP agents had in Form EC8A used to record votes by each political party.
“There was no genuine and transparent collation of results anywhere in Lagos. INEC only declared who they want to declare.
“This cheating is just too much. What we experienced at the poll was stealing of people’s mandate brazingly. They are damning the consequences.
“How can the electoral umpire connived with some politicians to turn my results upside down. I even defeat my rival from APC (Dr. Idiat Adebule) in her polling unit in Ojo LGA.
“I have my results all over, it is disheartening to hear I lost elections when you cooked up figure not minding what happened at the polling units and fact check by BVAS,” Adewale said.
Speaking further, Otunba Adewale insisted that PDP’s field agents had results from all the polling units in Lagos West Senatorial District, comprising 10 LGAs, alleging that the summation/collation of those results at Ward and local government levels was tampered with.
“All we are saying is that let us have a summation of Form EC8A. This is not too much to ask INEC.
“Over 90 per cent of those results were not signed by our agents because they did not reflect polling units figure scored by each party.
“Our agents refused to signed because the results that we have with us are different from the results INEC brought there for collation.
“The results being collated at different level must be the summation of EC8A, EC8B, EC8C and EC8D. Let INEC upload it and sum it.
“There is no need for rerun, our results show that we won. The Form EC8A shows that we won. This Form is our only saving grace but INEC refuse to upload this,” he said.
The PDP candidate pointed out that INEC had declared some people winners and losers even when it was still battling with uploadeding of Form EC8A days after elections took place, alleging further that through the back door during collation, the votes accrued to him were deliberately reduced in places like Amuwo-Odofin, Ajeromi Ifelodun, Oshodi-Isolo, Agege, Ojo and other LGAs.
“Right now, what we have seen on our own Form EC8A is totally different from about 30 per cent of results INEC uploaded thus far on the INEC IREV portal for results viewing,” he said.
Adewale said that if nothing was done to the petition asking INEC to review the election results, the group would have no option other than to go court to get back their allegedly stolen mandate, even as he maintained that all entreaties to collation officers at various levels of collations to fact check the results with BVAS (Bimodal Voter Accreditation System) proved abortive.
Also speaking, Gomez explained that his LGA agent refused to sign the results as, according to him, “what he got in his hand is different from what INEC staff were producing for collation.”
Gomez, therefore, called on INEC to ensure that the wrongs and injustices were corrected with the commission’s seven days window to review results.
Owadara, the Chairman, Forum of PDP House of Representatives’ Candidates for 2023 General Election, who also spoke, said that the group was never accept the result declared by the commission, vowing that it would pursue the matter to any length to get back the people’s mandate.
“We will pursue it and we are ready to go to any length to get back our mandate. We won the election in Lagos State. We are not accepting the results,” he said.
