Tag: INEC

INEC cancels election in Imo State, rescues 19 kidnapped staff

INEC has announced the cancellation of the state house of assembly elections scheduled for Ideato North Local Government Area of Imo State.

The approach was in reaction to the kidnapping of 17 ad-hoc staff earlier today, 18th March 2023. This unfortunate incident raised serious concerns about the safety of electoral officers and the integrity of the election process. An anonymous source within the commission revealed that the INEC staff were reportedly overpowered by gunmen who forced them into vehicles before speeding away. Chinenye Chijioke-Osuji, who is a spokesperson for INEC, however, confirmed the rescue of the kidnapped staff in response to a distress call, with operatives immediately taking action upon receiving information about the incident. Despite successfully rescuing the individuals, Chijioke-Osuji also noted that the election materials, including BVAS and sensitive materials, were not retrieved.

INEC begins upload of result on IREV portal

The process of transferring the results of the gubernatorial election to the Election Result Viewing Portal (IReV) has been initiated by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), as per the latest updates. It would be recalled in a statement that INEC assured that challenges faced during the February 25th election will not repeat themselves while emphasizing its preparedness for the gubernatorial elections. As of the time of this report, the results of the 2023 gubernatorial elections have been successfully uploaded onto the platform from eight polling units in Zamfara State, 46 polling units in Rivers State, and 40 polling units in Lagos State.

begins INEC IReV portal result Upload

INEC staff in Surulere Lagos accosted for saying results will only be uploaded at RAC center

INEC staff deployed to PU059 in Surulere, Lagos state has said that they cannot upload the governorship and state house of assembly election results directly from the polling unit.

The lady addressing voters informed them that the results collected won’t be uploaded from the polling unit until they take them to the INEC Registration Area Centre (RAC) where, according to her, the network is. This, however, sparked angry reactions from voters who insisted that they upload the results to iRev immediately after the results were counted to avoid the possibility of the results being changed later on. Watch the video below:

accosted center INEC Lagos RAC results staff Surulere uploaded

“Errors we had in previous elections will not reoccur” — INEC assures ahead of Saturday’s polls

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, stated its commitment to preventing the recurrence of the errors that happened during the February 25 polls in the upcoming governorship elections on Saturday throughout the country.

During an interview with Arise TV on Friday, Festus Okoye, the Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee at INEC, assured that the voting materials will be delivered early enough to the polling units on Saturday. He also remarked that the commission had gained important insights from the presidential and National Assembly elections held on February 25. “The commission is determined to improve on its previous performance. What we have done is to learn valuable lessons from previous elections that we conducted, and we’re going to put those lessons into our planning purposes and processes, and into our deployment purposes,” Okoye said. Speaking on the INEC’s readiness, Okoye said, “As of today, what we’re having is what we call state assembly and governorship elections. “In all the states of the federation, both the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System machines and all the sensitive election materials have left the Central Bank and the various state offices of the federation. “We want to ensure that all polling units open on time. Secondly, we made sure that we reconfigured all the BVAS that will be used for this particular election in terms of making sure that the BVAS perform optimally and also making sure that some of the challenges we had in the previous elections do not reoccur.”

AHEAD assures ELECTIONS errors INEC polls previous reoccur Saturdays

INEC rejects Labour Party’s request to witness BVAS reconfiguration

The Labour Party has dragged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for reconfiguring the BVAS without their witnesses.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) rejected the request from the Independent Party to witness the reconfiguration of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines. This action comes after the Court of Appeal in Abuja granted INEC’s request to reconfigure the BVAS that was used for the presidential election on the 25th of February, 2023. Yunusa Tanko, the spokesman for the Obi-Datti Presidential Campaign Council said it was wrong for INEC to reconfigure the BVAS machines without any witness from Labour Party with the excuse that the data has been backup. “Are we privy or invited to see what was being backed up? If there is going to be transparency, what INEC needs to do is to invite everybody with their technical experts to see what the commission intends to back up from the original source. Was this done? “We didn’t want to use that as evidence in the court of law. INEC should not forget that we also have our own results. Anything contradictory to that particular result and what they backed up will be totally unacceptable to us. “It is clear right from the beginning that INEC deliberately went to court for reconfiguration of the BVAS machines after Obi requested to inspect election materials. Of course, nobody, not even you and I, know the commission can come up with anything like reconfiguration at this time. This was done after we demanded to inspect those machines. “When you are going into an arrangement, it is always important to tell people about the rule of engagement and ensure you don’t change it. But INEC keeps on changing the rule of engagement in order to cover their shady deals. It is unfortunate that we have to bring INEC down to this particular level.” Yunusa Tanko has however disclosed that Peter Obi and his lawyers are in talks about whether or not to appeal the court ruling on BVAS reconfiguration.

BVAS INEC Labour partys reconfiguration rejects request Witness

Confidence in INEC is now at an all-time low – Former Director

Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi, a former Director of Voter Education and Publicity at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)has said that confidence in the electoral body is at an all-time low ahead of the next phase of the 2023 election.

The former INEC Director said this while commenting on the conduct of the February 25 presidential and National Assembly elections during an interview on Channels Television. Oluwole also averred that INEC can’t afford to do any wrong again following the controversy the non-upload of results to its Results Viewing Portal (IReV) caused.

He said; “You could not envisage a situation with the tension of the country. With the uncertainty and all that has happened in the last 10, 12 day, I don’t think INEC could afford doing any wrong again. “Things went awry last time around and confidence, I think, is at an all-time low. Some people may begin to get over it, but I think the vast majority of Nigerians are satisfied.”

alltime confidence DIRECTOR INEC

Afenifere drags INEC for disobeying electoral guidelines

The pan-Yoruba socio-political organization, Afenifere has dragged INEC for disobeying the electoral guidelines regarding the 2023 elections.

The socio-political organization earlier condemned the declaration of results for the All Progressive Congress (APC) candidate, Bola Tinubu by INEC after the elections were over. The organization further took a swipe at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC ) saying that the commission did not adhere to electoral guidelines. The organisation after holding a meeting released a communique that said; “The deliberate non-compliance by the Commission with these mandatory guidelines encouraged electoral brigandage at the polling units which included the destruction of ballot papers, snatching of ballot boxes, doctoring of figures and swapping of votes of candidates at the coalition centres by amended and outlawed manual procedures which rendered the 25th February 2023 Presidential and National Assembly elections flawed in several respects as confirmed by local and international observers. “The results of the lawful votes at the election available to the Afenifere through credible sources confirm that His Excellency Peter Gregory Obi, the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party won the said election and we thus support his decision challenging the contrary Declaration by the INEC.” The group, which declared that the Labour Part’s candidate, Mr Peter Obi won the presidential election, “denounced in strong terms and dissociated Afenifere from any congratulatory message in the name of the Organisation or howsoever to any candidate as illegally declared by the INEC.” “Afenifere reiterates that for equity, fairness, national cohesion and peaceful corporate existence, the next President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria shall be a person of its Southern part and specifically the South-East,” the statement added.

Afenifere disobeying drags electoral guidelines INEC

INEC postpones governorship and state assembly elections…

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC has postponed the governorship and state assembly elections.

Initially, the elections were scheduled to hold on the 11th of March but have now been postponed to the 18th of March, 2023. The postponement is due to the inability of the commission to promptly commence reconfiguration of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS machines utilized during the February 25 presidential election to enable their use in the state elections. INEC was earlier restrained from tampering with the information embedded in the BVAS machines until the due inspection was conducted and Certified True Copies (CTC) were issued to candidates who are challenging the outcome of the presidential election. The commission had convinced the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal to vary its order granting Peter Obi of the Labour Party and PDP’s Atiku Abubakar permission to inspect the election materials on the premise that it had to reconfigure the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) for the conduction of the polls this Saturday.

assembly ELECTIONS Governorship INEC postpones State

Appeal court orders INEC to grant Peter Obi access to inspect election materials

The court of appeals has ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to give Peter Obi access to election materials.

Earlier today, it was reported that Peter Obi canceled his campaign trips and attend court proceedings with his lawyers after he sued the INEC, APC, and Bola Tinubu. He further accused INEC of refusing him to have access to the election materials before they declare Tinubu as president of Nigeria. In a new development, the court has granted the Labour Party access to inspect the materials. It has also given INEC permission to reconfigure BVAS after all the parties involved have gotten access to the materials.

access appeal Court Election grant INEC inspect materials Obi orders PETER

Peter Obi accuses INEC of not allowing them inspect electoral materials

Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi has said that he would be putting a hold on his whistle-stop campaign for governorship and state assembly candidates of the party today, March 8, following the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) refusal to allow them to inspect the materials (including BVAS) from the February 25 presidential elections.

Recall that Labour Party and Peoples Democratic Party were granted access to inspect sensitive materials used by INEC in the presidential election by a Court of Appeal. Obi, in tweets he shared, said he would be accompanying his lawyers to court over the issue. He also urged his supporters to vote for all Labour party candidates in the forthcoming election. The tweet read; “I am supposed to commence our whistle-stop campaign for our various Labour Party Governorship and State Assembly Candidates today. Initially, my trip was to take me to Nasarawa, Lagos, Enugu, Abia, Delta, Edo, Rivers, Plateau, Borno, etc.

“However, following INEC’s refusal to allow our party to inspect the materials (including BVAS) from the 25th February presidential elections, I am personally heading to the Court today with our lawyers. “As we pursue due process and defer to the rule of law, I urge all the OBIdients in the various states to continue campaigning for our candidates, namely, Gbadebo Rhodes Vivour in Lagos, Chijoke Edeoga in Enugu, Patrick Dakum in Plateau, Alex Otti in Abia, Ken Pela in Delta, Ibrahim Mshelia in Borno, to name just a few. It is also imperative that Obidients vote for candidates with Competence, Character, Capacity, and Compassion. I remain committed and will give more attention to our mission of retrieving our mandate. A new Nigeria is possible! -PO” I am supposed to commence our whistle-stop campaign for our various Labour Party Governorship and State Assembly Candidates today. Initially, my trip was to take me to Nasarawa, Lagos, Enugu, Abia, Delta, Edo, Rivers, Plateau, Borno, etc. — Peter Obi (@PeterObi) March 8, 2023

accuses allowing electoral INEC inspect materials Obi PETER