Prof. Attahiru Jega, former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has said that reckless politicians seeking to win elections at any cost entered the electoral body’s election result webpage, IReV, during the 2023 elections.
Jega claimed that these reckless and desperate politicians sabotaged the electoral commission’s efforts to conduct a proper election.
He stated this while appearing on Channel Television’s Inside Sources program on Friday.
According to Jega, “In 2023, INEC did its best under very difficult circumstances, and a lot of these difficult circumstances were caused by the mindset of our selfish politicians who wanted to win by hook or by crook.”
Jega added that the Commisson “has over time introduced technology to make the process of election results very transparent with integrity, but from my own experience when I was in INEC from 2011 to 2015, I suspect that a lot of that has continued to be so up to 2023, when our reckless politicians try to be a step ahead of INEC.
“If you introduce something today and you try it, they try to be a step ahead of you and beat it by the next election.
“I feel that something has happened—that in spite of the confidence and the very articulate manner in which the INEC chairman (Mahmood Yakubu) had spoken about the IReV, it then failed.
“I believe that some of our reckless politicians may have infiltrated it and truncated it, but INEC will take the blame for that.”
Jega claimed that politicians use “said and means” to truncate and bypass the IReV portal.
While calling for an investigation, Jega demanded that the electoral commission explain to Nigerians what happened to IReV.
