Laolu Akande, former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo’s, says the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) inability to electronically transmit presidential and National Assembly election results has eroded Nigerians’ trust in the agency.
While INEC consistently said in the run-up to the February 2023 election that polling unit results would be transmitted to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV), this did not occur during the presidential and National Assembly elections.
Despite criticism from Nigerians, the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal (PEPT) concluded that the electoral umpire is free to decide how election results are transmitted.
Following the development, Akande stated that INEC’s inability to e-transmit results has eroded the commission’s trust among Nigerians.
It is critical to establish something we cannot essentially avoid. INEC emerged from this election as a tainted entity. That is beyond a doubt. INEC established a standard. The guidelines were established by INEC. INEC promised the people of Nigeria that this is how the election results would be announced. “In fact, the chairman of INEC went abroad and said, ‘What we are going to do is that when we get these results, we will put them on IReV in real-time,'” he stated on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Friday.
According to him, the remark increased public trust in the electoral umpire.
“However, guess what? When it came time for INEC to follow its instructions, for various reasons that we may discuss, it failed to do so. Now, if you look at the law, which I believe the justices also confirmed, INEC has not broken the law. However, INEC has betrayed the Nigerian people’s trust,” he continued.
He claimed that the event not only jeopardizes INEC’s integrity but also calls into question the legitimacy of those who won the elections.
“It is a problem for political legitimacy for people who came out of that system,” said the former VP adviser.
“There is a lot of cynicism and distrust [about those declared winners]. “INEC is for that,” he said.
