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Why INEC Must Be An ‘Abysmal Manipulator’ For Declaring Obi, Atiku Winners In Certain States – Tribunal Judge
Why INEC Must Be An ‘Abysmal Manipulator’ For Declaring Obi, Atiku Winners In Certain States – Tribunal Judge
Moses Ugo, one of the justices on the presidential election tribunal, has expressed skepticism about the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)’s capabilities as an electoral authority.
He noted that INEC’s performance might be considered “abysmally poor” based on their declaration of Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar as winners in specific states during the 2023 election.
Despite the allegations of manipulation, irregularities, and non-compliance with the Electoral Act raised by the Labour Party (LP), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and their candidates, the petitioners were unable to substantiate that INEC had manipulated the election results.
Justice Ugo further raised questions about the discrepancy between the figures secured by Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in certain states, despite allegations of favoritism towards him by INEC.
Additionally, Ugo found it noteworthy that Tinubu lost in his home state of Lagos to Obi of the LP, even though he was purportedly the favored candidate according to the allegations.
“I am of the very fixed view that the two sets of petitioners did not by any means discharge the burden on them of proving that the results of the presidential election of 25th February, 2023 as declared by 1st respondent were incorrect,” Ugo said.
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The judge further determined that the petitioners’ claim that INEC intentionally withheld electronic result transmission to IReV, the viewing portal, in a bid to favor the APC and Tinubu, lacked substantiated evidence.
“Incidentally, that assertion of petitioners that INEC simply closed down or blocked its IReV and e-transmission system to enable it manipulate election results in favour of 2nd respondent, also takes me directly to the more important question in the petition,” he said.
“Namely, whether that allegation is even worthy of belief given the results declared by INEC for them and the 2nd respondent in the election.
“The question is, do the results declared by INEC support that hypothesis? I shall therefore now try to walk us through some of these election results to see if that assertion of petitioners is supported by the results declared by INEC.”
Ugo said it was curious that Tinubu lost in Abia, Anambra, Enugu, Adamawa, Ebonyi and even Lagos, among others, when he was the “favoured candidate” of the umpire.
“If all the results declared by INEC for each of the states for the two sets of petitioners and 2nd respondent is anything to go by, then INEC must be an abysmally poor manipulator, if not even an imbecilic one,” he said.
“Surely, it would not go through all the stress of closing down its IReV and blocking the public from seeing its manipulative efforts in favour of 2nd respondent as alleged by the petitioners, only for it to still end up favouring the petitioners with jumbo votes and posting miserly figures for the favoured second respondent.”
Ugo also said the petitioners did not tender evidence of alleged rigging from the polling units.
“At any rate, why did any of the two sets of petitioners not tender even a single polling unit result issued by INEC to their polling unit agents to support their claim of manipulation of election results by INEC, even as they all agreed that they have agents in the polling units?” he asked.
“I had thought that this is the best and most effective way of proving the manipulation of election results alleged by them.
“After all, the polling unit is the only place where voting takes place and so also constitutes the building blocks of election results.
“In short, the allegation of the petitioner that INEC shut down IReV to manipulate votes for second respondent, just does not add up for me.”
The judge also pointed out that INEC’s explanation regarding the technical difficulties preventing real-time electronic result transmission on the day of voting was a more reasonable argument.
The tribunal subsequently upheld Tinubu’s election as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on Wednesday, dismissing the petitions filed by Obi, Atiku, and the Allied Peoples Movement (APM).
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